


Daughter of Gotham

by Jasontodd908



Series: A Saga of Earth 91192 [3]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Aging, Angst, Another Kryptonian, Arkham Asylum, Artificial Insemination, Assuming the mantle, Bat Family, Brainwashing, Catholic Mysticism, City Growth, Coming full circle, Coups, Daughter of Zod, Destroyed Mobsters, F/F, Good Eats from Greek gods, Greek pantheon, Hanging up the Cowl, Hate, In laws, It's all working, League of Assassins - Freeform, Love, Marriage Vows, Mayhem, Mental Illness, Multiple Personality Disorder, Old Movies, Peaceful Ares, Police Mistrust, Political Campaigns, Politics, Retirement, Retirement?, Return to Gotham, Reunited and It Feels So Good, Revenge, Romance, Searching for Perfection, Seeking Help, Serial Killer, Stepfordization (attempted), Struggle Between Good and Evil, War, Wish Fulfillment, Workout, Yearning, Years Later, Years of marriage, new generations, proposal, society, surgeon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:41:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 161,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29014524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jasontodd908/pseuds/Jasontodd908
Summary: For twelve years now the Batfamily has kept watch over Gotham, and in that time they'd lost a daughter, defeated an alien tyrant, killed a monster from the Underworld and built a city that truly stands as a beacon of hope for all others to look up too. But not all is as it seems. Bruce and Harleen Wayne are getting old. Indeed so are many of their friends. They have to counter this fact and the arrival of one final threat to the city that they had a hand themselves in bringing about. Finding themselves outnumbered and outmatched, the bat family will have to fight tooth and nail to defend what they've struggled to build....from one of their own, whose only mission is to tear it apart.
Relationships: Alfred Pennyworth/Elise Quinzel, Ares/Adriane, Batman/Harley Quinn, Dinah Lance/Vic Sage, Harleen Quinzel/Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent/Pamela Isley, Jason Todd/Jenny Cobblepot, Renee Montoya/Tatsu Yamashiro, The Question/Black Canary, Two Face/Poison Ivy
Series: A Saga of Earth 91192 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2063406
Comments: 164
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't resist. Damn. And I thought I was gonna take a break. Ohh well. If you're new to this story, please read "When Harley Met Bruce" and "Judgement Over Gotham" first. I know they're long but if you jump in here you'll be utterly confused. I think I made this world too lore heavy? Did I? I don't know. Maybe. Probably. Anyways, without further ado, I introduce you to the final story in my trilogy. I hope you like it!
> 
> P.S, to one of my reviewers, Dance of Pales...I'm shocked that you haven't gotten the symbolism behind the series' work yet! The numbers Dyatlov...the numbers ;)

**_Neo Gotham….Six Years Later_ **

“Come on! Come on, fucking move!”

“I’m going as fast as I can. Take a chill pill asshole!”. The thug in the passenger seat didn’t think it would be possible for him to calm down. Not with the bat on their tail. He turns and looks past the back of the cargo van, past the tied up girls who look up at him fearfully. “Ohh shit..Pyg isn’t going to like this!”

“Only if they catch us!”.

The driver fishes around by the center console and pulls out a pistol, though he’d never quite seen a pistol like that before. “What the hell?”

“Here, take it. Someone nabbed it off that Luthor train wreck three months back. Some kind of laser pistol”. He tosses it to his compatriot who fumbles with the experimental weapon in his hand, almost dropping it. “How...how do I use it?”

The driver doesn’t answer as he was now engaged in turning the van onto another road, swerving out wide and managing to dent in the fender of a minivan which had been in traffic. The screeching of wheels and sound of further crashes could be heard as a small pileup began. Hopefully that would dissuade the bat.

Hopefully.

“Do you seem him back there?” he asks, unable to take his eyes off of the road for a moment and instead decides to rely on his partner who he was sure would at least be able to do that right. The bigger man turns and looks around, not seeing the batmobile anywhere and sight, and it was practically impossible to lose sight of the hulking behemoth. 

“I...I think we lost them”.

“Heh, thanks to me” the driver jokes, poking his accomplice in the side. “You don’t even know how to use a gun. Thank god I could drive, else we never would’ve lost….”.

Something impacts hard against the hood, startling the two men and filling them with fear at the thought that they’d hid someone. What they see staring back at them through the glass however only proves to be far worse.

Batman was perched upon their van’s hood, not minding the speed at which the van had accelerated out of the man’s fear at all. With one fluid movement he brings his fist forward and slams it against the glass, allowing himself to go right through it. It didn’t shatter the whole window, the design making that in and of itself impossible, but it did give him a nice grip. Using his strength her rips the destroyed window out and tosses it to the side, exposing the two men to the whipping of the cold winter air.

“I think you need to get your eyes checked”.

The two men are instantly in a panic.

“Shoot him Willy! Shoot him! Fucking frag him!”

The fatter of the two raises the laser pistol, but it was shaky in his hands, and he wasn’t prepared. Bruce easily reaches out, and using the hydraulics in his gloves, snaps it in two, causing a little spurt of latent green energy to burst outwards. It singes the man’s clothes and sets him on fire, adding to the urgency of the situation.

Bruce grimaces to himself and attempts to reach into the cab, now trying to find a way to save the goons and the girls they’d kidnapped.  
  
He wasn’t allowed the chance however, as the van now begins to wildly swerve and he is thrown upwards by an inopportunely placed pot hole. Gotham had been cleaned up, but some problems remained.

He sails through the air, though at the last moment he is able to turn and right himself, using the magnetic pads in his gloves that could be activated at a moment’s notice. As he slid across the roof of the van he couldn’t help but be thankful that they were there, and they managed to prevent him from falling off of the van. 

He didn’t have time to be thankful though, as he was now hanging off of the back of the van. He turns over the side to look at where the van was going, the driver too focused on putting out the flames over his friend to notice.

“Crap! Put it out! Put it out!”

Using some quick thinking the driver picks up a bottle of soda and opens it with hs teeth before pouring the contents over his partner. The flames are extinguished, and just in time, but now he was covered in the sugary liquid.

“Thanks” he says sarcastically. 

“You’re welcome”.

Batman meanwhile had reached down to open the rear cargo door, careful with his movements so as to avoid harming any of the kidnapped girls. They look up him from their position on the floor, bound and unable to say anything but saying all that needed to be communicated with their wide and fearful eyes.

The goons see him in their rearview mirror and their momentary relief at having put out the flames diminishes as soon as they see the vigilante. He had to end this, and he had to end it now.

He rushes forward and closes the door, wanting to avoid injury to any of the hostages as the driver begins to sway the van to the left and right violently, apparently wanting to unbalance their attacker. It almost worked, and Bruce had to fight to stay upright while also having the unsecured bodies slamming against his legs, causing them to groan out in pain. 

Bruce ignored that and kept moving forward, the goons within reaching distance now. The one in the passenger seat, not having had much luck with experimental guns, now tried to use a knife. Bruce dispatched that threat even quicker than the last one, and he snaps the man’s wrist, causing him to drop his offensive weapon.

His howls of pain are cut off by Batman’s fist which knocks him out instantly.

He now had to focus on the driver and quickly grasps the wheel, keeping it steady while headbutting the driver, disorientating him enough to knock him out as well. Another issue presented itself however, and it was one Bruce didn’t have a ready made solution to. While the driver was no longer in control of the van, his foot was still the master of the gas pedal, and the van accelerates down the road. Bruce didn’t have room to maneuver him out of the seat, especially not without killing or harming him irreparably.

He looks up to gauge where the van was going, and when he sees the edge of the pier in front of him, he realizes that the van was going to go for a swim. “Batwoman engage….”.

Before he could finish the sentence, the van stops harshly, causing the two thugs to slam forward into the dashboard, further injuring them. Bruce didn’t know what was going on as the engine was still revving but the van was not moving. Whatever was happening, the van needed to be stopped fully. Quickly he reaches down, taking advantage of the opportunity now being provided to him and shoves the unconscious man’s foot off of the gas.

The engine slowly stops revving and dies down, and he had more time.

Nothing seemed to be happening, which was strange considering that something had to have stopped the van, but what? Looking out the window he had his answer. Two large vines were encircling the vehicle, holding it in place. He gauged them to be some sort of sea plant, akin to seaweed.

That could only mean one thing.

The back doors of the van open and he sees Harleen, Ivy and Dinah standing there in their uniforms, all eager to make sure that he and the hostages were okay. “Sorry we couldn’t get here sooner Batman” Dinah says, jumping up into the van to help in untying and unmuzzling the girls. 

  
“There was a robbery across town” Ivy supplies, helping one startled and now free girl down out of the back of the van and onto the asphalt. “We broke it up”.

“Who was it?”

Batman was trying to remain stoic, a clinical detached aloofness shrouding most every one of his actions these days. He had to hide the pain he was feeling. The aches and the bruises having long started to linger long after the night.  
  
“We’re really not sure but we’re thinking it’s Croc back at it”.

  
Black Canary shivers, having a distasteful opinion of the man who seemed to do nothing but leer at her when they came face to face. “I hope not. I mean he literally just got out of jail. Why would he risk it again? This is his third strike”.

Ivy, having decided to join the newly minted “Birds of Prey” two years back, was wearing her mixed black and green one piece with vines and was busily trying to comfort the young girls who’d been taken.

Bruce reaches down to assist the last one, bending at just the right angle to press his side inwards. He winces in pain as the stitched up cut from the night before causes him pain. He stops for a moment, unable to move, and it was something that only Harleen saw at that moment. She doesn’t say anything though, not wanting to embarrass him at all.

Still, they’d need to talk once they got back to the cave.

“Are you alright?”

The last girl nods and begins to speak as soon as her mouth is freed. “Thank you! Thank you! Oh god thank you so much”. The tears freely ran down her face, and the misery she must’ve felt upon being cooped up in this van for the time she was, fearful for her very life. Batman continues to free her from her bindings, using the sharp edge of a batarang to cut the zip ties about her wrists and ankles.  
  
She throws herself into him, hugging the vigilante and crying shamelessly in her need to be comforted. Bruce was all to willing to provide that comfort, and he picks her up in his arms, carrying her out of the van. 

“He...you...they….they were going to do awful….”.

“Shhhh...it’s okay sweetie” Dinah says. “We know”.

“These girls have been through hell” Ivy says, barely able to suppress her anger. “Yeah, but they’re okay now” Harleen interjects while leaning down in front of one of them, a dark haired girl of hispanic descent. In fact, looking at all of them? They each seemed to be similar in that regard. It was a fact that Batman picked up on instantly, and noted down. ‘Why does Pyg want a certain type of girl? What was he planning with them?’

“Can you tell me anything about who took you, or why?”

Batwoman had begun to question one of the girls, gesturing for Dinah to rush back to the batmobile, parked a little down the street from the van’s position, to retrieve a few blankets that they kept for just this purpose. 

The blonde does as she’s asked, and rushes towards the car as she sees that one of the girls has started to shiver. Batman turns to Ivy, wanting to ask about the missing member of the Birds of Prey. 

“Where’s Katana?”

“Apparently staking out a warehouse in the theater district” the green skinned woman says. “She thinks that something odd is happening their, or...well…”.

“Her sword told her”.

“Yeah...her sword did”.

It was a little bit of an inside joke between the groups. How close the Japanese woman was to her sword. Still, it had led them to quite a few bg breaks and Tatsu was more than proficient in using it to save their lives at one point or another.

‘She’s been a good soldier too’.

Bruce winces once more in pain, this time much more sharply. So much so that his vision becomes spotty for a moment and he almost blacks out. Harleen turns from the girl and steadies Bruce as he almost falls to the ground. She catches him, but not before the others see. 

“Batman...are you okay?”  
  


He holds his hand up to stop Ivy, wanting them to focus on the girls. He assures Harleen that he was fine, though the woman naturally doesn’t buy it. Just then, the sound of sirens could be heard, and the lights that naturally came with them.

“GCPD is here”.

“Probably Montoya at the head too”.

That drew a bit of a grimace from everyone present, though they hid it as the police cars skidded to a stop in front of them. Over the years, Renee had begun to take a bit of a hardline with masked vigilantes. She wasn’t cruel of course, and could even be rather thankful or warm when the timing was right. What happened to Barbara still loomed heavily in her mind though, and she never let them forget it.

“I want a city that doesn’t need you, and I’ll be fighting for it every step of the way”.

She had said that once at a Justice Society monthly meeting, and she meant it. Little did she know that Bruce and Harleen were fighting for the same things. 

The lead car door opens and out steps the woman in question, who nods at the group of vigilantes before advancing towards them. “Batman, Birds”.  
  
“Hello commissioner”.

She looks over the wreck of the van and quirks an eyebrow, wondering at what had happened. “Anyone hurt?”. Batman shakes his head to the negative. “Two thugs in the front, knocked unconscious, and maybe some light burns”.

“Burns?”

“Self inflicted” Batman says. “Some of Luthor’s tech from the train accident managed to find its way onto the street. We have to crack down on that”.

The woman nods and looks down at the girls who are much calmer now, but still not over their ordeal. “Leave that to us Batman” she says simply while urging some of her officers up to help the girls. “We’ll take it from here. Go home. Get some rest”.

She turns away without another word and the officers work on helping the girls up onto their feet. Even Bullock comes up, and tips his hat in respect to the bats. “Bullock” Harleen says, smiling lightly in thanks for the detective not giving them any issues.

“You guys okay?”

“We’re fine”.

“Yeah...always are” he chuckles before moving off back towards the cars, undoubtedly working next on getting a statement from the girls. “I hope she doesn’t give Tatsu the same crap she gives us” Ivy whispers to Dinah who can’t help but nod her head in agreement. 

“Batman...we should head back”.

“Batwoman I’m…”.

“We’re going to head back”.

He understood an order when he received one, and he also knew when he could, and could not fight against the woman. He knew that this was just one of those times he wouldn’t be able to get his way.

There was also the pain, which was still there and causing a deep ache in his side. ‘Perhaps...we should get this looked at by Alfred’. He begins to move back towards the batmobile, limping a bit though doing his best to hide it. Nothing sailed past Harleen though, and her worry was instantly bubbling up in her chest.

“Do you guys need a ride?”

“Nah” Dinah says. “Houseplant and I will finish up our patrol and then make our way back. I parked my bike a little ways down the road anyways”.

“Houseplant? Really? That’s the best you’ve got blondie?”

“It’s better than blondie”.

Harleen didn’t have time to join in with her friend’s good natured bickering tonight. Not when Bruce seemed to be in pain. She wanted to let him lean on her, but he probably didn’t want that as to appear weak was something Bruce was certainly not fond of.

Still...his gait towards the batmobile gave her cause for concern. 

Soon enough though, amidst all of the confusion and activity of the police line, he jumps into the batmobile, followed immediately by Harleen. The car starts and rockets off down the street and into the night, undoubtedly heading towards Wayne Manor.

“Is it just me or…”.

“Yeah, somethings wrong”.

Both women were worried but they themselves couldn’t focus on the issue right now either. They still had a patrol to do and a city to keep safe. Still, they were worried about their friends. 

Harleen and Bruce.

**_????????_ ** **_  
  
_ **

He was back atop that manmade cliff in the sewers where he was so long ago, but also every night. He didn’t know why, but he always came back here in his dreams. He simply couldn’t shake it. He saw her fall, again and again.

It was always the same.

Under her mask, her eyes looked out at him in terror, begging him to save her, to do what he’d promised to do and protect her. Unlike when it had actually happened, he was alone, and there was no Bruce or Harleen there to help.

It was just him, and he would watch in slow motion as she fell, her arms stretched out towards him. He tried to move forward but it felt like his feet were encased in mud and every step took an agonizing infinity to actually be taken.

“Jason!”

Her scream. 

That was something that never changed either. It was always there, grating on his very soul. He’d almost be able to forget her voice if it wasn’t for this constant scene playing out over and over. He’d go days without thinking about her, and then he’d be right back here, the horror playing out the same way.

Eventually his feet would be able to move, and things would be sped up, like someone had turned reality up to normal speed. He’d rocket forward as if the demons of hell were on his heels, desperate to reach the falling girl in the Robin suit.

“Barbara!”

He’d get close.

  
So close.

But as his feet sped up, so too would her fall. Her scream would get louder as she’d disappear into the blackness below and Jason would skid to a stop, wanting to jump in after her but being held back by some sort of force he couldn’t identify. 

He’d gaze down into the abyss, hoping, praying that something, anything would bring her back up, or that it would be one of her awful jokes where she’d be laying there a few feet down, chuckling up at him.

It never was.

Instead all it would be was the stygian dark.

Suddenly though, even that would change, and flames would burst out from below, practically searing his flesh with their intensity. He’d back up just in time to see the Earth crack and reshape itself, a platform rising before him to show Barbara...changed.

Her face was contorted in rage, and a cloak of darkness surrounded her, a blackened sword contained within her own hand. “Why didn’t you save me Jason?”

He wouldn’t have an answer, not one that would placate her anyways.

It would only further enrage her when he told her the truth. “I tried Barbara...god I tried so hard to save you”.

“You failed!”

With that she would raise her own sword just as the two masses of stone would collide, connecting the two and creating an area big enough for them to fight. He’d be on his feet when something clattered before him, and when he looked down to see it the sword of St. Dumas would be before him.

Further inspection of his own body would show him that he was now clad in the suit of sorrows. He accepts this, and part of him knows that this is how it was meant to be. He picks up his sword though he does not raise it as Barbara has raised hers.  
  
Even now, divested of her Robin costume and rage in her eyes, he can’t fight her, and he knows it. 

He’s going to let her kill him.

“You know what must be done Jason”.

Dumas was there, in between them astride a blazing horse. He watched with rapt attention under his steel visor, his helm only revealing his eyes, which burn with a holy fire and zeal. “You must do it Jason….you must be a saviour”.

  
With those words, Jason picks up his sword and readies himself for what he must do. 

In his heart, he knew this was unavoidable.

**_Dorm Room of Jason Wayne, Gotham University_ **

He woke up in a cold sweat, the blankets almost falling off of him and onto the floor as he looks around his room, trying to see either Dumas or Barbara. It always felt so real, and this night was like all the other nights when the dream would wake him up in a cold sweat. 

It wasn’t real.

It never was.

Barbara was dead and he knew that. He tried to convince himself every day that he would be able to move on if he could just put that all behind him, but he couldn’t, and the dream was helping make sure of that.

He throws his legs over the side of the bed and reaches for his nightstand, taking the bottle of water he always left there and opening it, taking a deep sip. 

When it was half empty he puts it down and leans on his knees, trying to steady his breathing. ‘Barbara...dammit’. He didn’t want to forget his friend and lover. Ever, but part of him? Part of him wished that he could so he just wouldn’t hurt so much.

“Hrrmmmm nnnngh...Jason?”

He smiles to himself and remembers he wasn’t alone in bed, something that was a great comfort when this happened. “Yeah?”  
  


“Are you okay sweetie?”

“Yeah I’m fine...go back to bed Jenny”.

Jenny Cobblepot doesn’t do that, and instead she slinks up out of the covers and kneels behind him, her head resting on his shoulder and her arms wrapping around his bare chest, gently rubbing him. “You don’t seem fine”.

“I am”.

“No you’re not”.

“Yes I am”.

“No you’re not”.

“I am...I’m not playing Jenny” he laughs, feeling a little lighter at their childish exchange. She sighs deeply and coos against him, kissing his neck. “Tell me what’s wrong? Bad dream again?”

“Yeah...I guess”.

He couldn’t lie to her. He didn’t want to anyways. There was so much that he wanted to tell her but couldn’t. ‘Are omissions of truth lies?’ He had to ask himself. ‘Yes..they are’.

“You wanna talk to me about it?”

“Jenny...no, no sweetie. It’s okay. I’m fine”.

He takes her hand within his own and brings it up to his lips, kissing her skin. “I love you Jason Wayne”.

“You’re just saying that because I’m going to be rich” he teases, knowing that be untrue. She gasps and hits him, a wide smile on her own face. “You jerk! Besides, we both know I’m going to be richer than you” she chides. “That’s right. Jenny Cobblepot, owner and proprietor of casinos and lounges up and down the eastern seaboard. An empire”.

“That’s right!” she says triumphantly. “An emperor Penguin...eww...I just called myself a penguin”.

“Well your dad is one so what does that make you if not a penguin?”

He moves back into bed and turns to gather the woman in his arms, making her giggle at how he simply manhandles her into the position that would best suit them for cuddling. “Fair enough”. She was most comfortable when in his arms, and he was more than willing to make her comfortable any time she wanted.

He loved her.

He did.

But there was always these nagging thoughts in the back of his mind, and they always involved a red headed girl that was her polar opposite. Jenny smiles up at him and places her hand on his cheek. “Are you excited about finally finishing your masters Mr. “I need two degrees”.

He rolls his eyes and nods. “Yeah. I guess I am. Why? How about you?”

She shrugs. “I’m excited to have my boyfriend for a little bit more than I have yeah…”.

He knew that was true. He’d started dating Jenny three years prior, after he’d finally thought he was ready to move on. It had been great! She was a doting and very affectionate woman, and she’d grown even more beautiful since highschool. She was short, a little like her father, but had a plump and full womanly figure. She was also incredibly industrious and smart. She ran the Iceberg Lounge for her father who’d been slowly phased out.

He fought his retirement but Jenny wanted him to relax and enjoy his life now, forcing him to take it slow. Mr. Cobblepot, for he’d always be Mr. Cobblepot to Jason, still loved to hob knob around the lounge, fixing the few things that he was allowed to work on.

She’d been a huge boon to his life, and watching her laying there with him, wearing nothing but panties and his freshly cleaned baseball Jersey? He knew that he had to be fair to her.

His mind drifts back to the ring box in his dresser drawer. He’d bought it two weeks ago, and he was planning on proposing at the Iceberg this weekend. She’d waited for a long time, suffering in silence as it were, for him to finish school and take up a teaching post. Between that and his continued training as Azrael, his mind had been busy, and he hadn’t thought about what Jenny might want.

‘If she says yes, you’ll have to tell her’ he thinks, reminding himself of that unpleasant truth. 

“I love you Jason”.

Those words take his worry away, though the tightness in his chest remains. Slowly he smiles and pushes a strand of her dark hair back behind her ear. “I love you too Jenny”.

She murrs and moves into his chest, yawning loudly. “Well...I guess everything is just fine in my world then baby”. She kisses him again and pulls the blankets up to under both of their chins. “Goodnight Jason”.

“Goodnight”.

**_The Batcave_ **

He winces as his hand moves over the stitches, having been freshly applied by a long suffering butler and his girlfriend, Bruce’s mother in law, who glares at him.

“That’s the eighth time this month you’ve made a wound worse Bruce”.

“I’ve lost count of how many it is over the course of his career” Alfred chimes in, taking away the trash from the medical detritus he’d used to rebind Bruce’s wounds. The man had the common courtesy to look cowed. “Sorry Alfred”.

“Sorry doesn’t cut it Brucey boy” Elise says while advancing on the man and turning her head to seek out Harleen who was bringing over a ice pack for her husband. “That goes for you too missy”.

“What did I do?”

“You got old. Both of you. That’s what”.

Bruce didn’t want to admit it, but it was the truth. More than the truth. He was still in prime physical condition, so was Harleen for that matter. But it was clear that after twelve years of being knocked around they weren’t getting younger.

Even now he had dyed the lower portion of his hair next to his temples to avoid letting people see the grey that was starting to work its way in. He was slower, weaker at times. He simply wasn’t where he used to be.

Harleen moves over and places the pack on his side, surprising him with the chill that impacts his skin. He turns to his wife and she smiles up at him in a joking manner. “Sowwy”.

“You’ll make it up to me later” he winks, causing the woman who was still dressed in her pants and sports bra to blush. Elise continued her rant however. “And Alfred and I...well, we’re getting too old to keep patching you two back up” she says with a sigh. He knew that was true. If his movements were hampered he would have to admit that Alfreds were even more so.

The man had lost all remaining color in his hair, and despite his ever cheerful demeanor, his age was shown on his face. The man who raised him was in the twilight of his life, and that was something that he was most certainly no ready to face.

  
Elise as well had aged and the stresses of helping the Amazons move into their new lives had taken much more of a strain upon her than she thought. Only the four guards, Nubia, Persephone, Artemis and Alexandra remained, though they also functioned, to their initial chagrin, as maids to the Wayne household. 

Their old camp lay abandoned and in disrepair, their earthworks having caved in.  
  
Bruce wanted to leave it as it was, a monument to the Amazons they’d managed to bury there. The rest had moved out into the city and gotten jobs, got married and even had children to his shock. Most of them. Others preferred single life, or travelling. Everywhere they went though, they knew they had a home in Gotham, and their queen was in constant communication with them regardless.

Their ideals were being spread across the globe. 

“Bruce...sweetie...I love ya. You’re like a son to me. But this whole dark knight thing? You can’t do it forever. What about your babies?”

“I think you’re over…”.

“The city doesn’t need Batman anymore Bruce” Elise says. “And it doesn’t need Batwoman either. It has so many heroes here now that nobody would even think about being a super baddie in this town again”.

“Mama we…”.

“She’s right Miss Wayne”.

Alfred had taken this opportunity to chime in, adding his own view. “I think...I think it’s time to stop Bruce. Your parents would be pleased. Beyond pleased but...your wounds. They get harder to bind each time and I’m not sure...I’m not sure how much more you two can take”.

He didn’t know what to say.  
  
Part of him knew they were right. 

The city simply wasn’t as violent and dirty as it had used to be. In fact, now it was a center of economic and technological growth. Streets were safe and clean, and very few criminals were able to operate at a level beyond purse snatcher. Still, people like Pyg, the last of the true villains, remained outside of the walls of Arkham Asylum.

He turns to Harleen, wanting to gauge her reaction.

From what he sees it’s clear that her mind was working the same way as hers. He didn’t want to give it up, and neither did she, but soon? It would appear that they would have no choice. 

“Alfred...Elise...we’ll have this discussion with the rest soon. I...maybe you’re right”.

It was a hard admission to make, and it pleased the others that he’d made it. In the end it was enough to make them happy, enough to show them that he was seriously considering it. Elise kisses his forehead and moves off, wanting to help Alfred up the stairs. Both of them had aged and become frail, but Alfred much more so. Elise was there to help him.

“I’m hoping we can get to that” Harleen says, watching them go with a sad smile.

He turns and pats his lap, wanting her to sit down, something she gingerly does so as not to harm her husband. He wraps his arm about her waist and looks around, seeing all the trophies they’d taken and displayed. 

“We did good didn’t we?”

“Uhhm” she affirms. “The best”.

“Would you be okay...if we had to stop it all now?”

She doesn’t answer immediately and that in itself was an answer. “Me too. It may sound stupid to the others but...I’m not ready”.

“Me neither” she sighs out. “But...maybe, I don’t know. I feel like I’ve gotten slower. I should’ve been able to catch up to you real quick, like I used to but...I don’t know I just wasn’t fast enough with the reactions and my hands and all that crap. Thank god for Ivy”.

He smirks and kisses her cheek, mentally communicating the fact that he didn’t blame her at all for what happened or the injury he sustained. 

“We should take down Pyg first. Then….we’ll enter negotiations”.

“We’re gonna be replaced” she says with a long suffering exhale. “Martha, she trains day in and day out. She’d put me on my butt if I tried to spar with her and I know it. Our little badass”.

Their thoughts turn to Jason who, in many ways, was estranged from them. He didn’t really reach out too much, though he did come over every saturday for dinner. He was mostly quiet, counting on Jenny to fill the silence left by his lack of conversation.

It hurt him, but in the end? He was a man. Martha was practically a demigod, something he himself couldn’t fathom. He didn’t like it, but allowing Martha to take up a mantle in a much safer world didn’t affect him nearly as much as the thought of Jason throwing himself into the night in the same way he did. 

He wanted better for his son and daughters. 

“Can you answer one question though Bruce?”

“Uhhmm”.

“I’m an old woman now...so my mama says...but do you still find me...attractive?”

He smirks and turns her head so that he could look at him directly in the eyes. He could see the nervousness and uncertainty reflected within, and that, for some reason, bothered him. “Why Mrs. Wayne…” he teases, leaning in to kiss her lips. “You’re still the most gorgeous woman in the world. You’ll remain that way for as long as we live”.

  
She blushes and smirks, happy to have a bit of affirmation from her husband. 

“And how about me? Am I still good enough? For an old man I mean?”

She smiles seductively and leans in to lick his lips in a teasing manner, pulling back just as he was about to capture her lips again. “Mmm...you’ll do just fine for me Mr. Wayne”. She punctuates her teasing tone of voice by running her hands up and down his muscled and scared chest. “Can you do something for me though?”

“What?”

She leans into his ear and whispers. “Stop dying your hair”. She descends into laughter at Bruce’s fish out of water expression and only continues as he frowns. “I didn’t know you knew”.

“Sweetie, I’m the world’s second greatest detective. I knew. Besides...I like how it looks on you. Makes you look...distinguished, and it’s every girl’s dream to be the gal pal of a rich distinguished older gentleman who spoils her”.

She splays her arms over his shoulder and nuzzles her nose against his. “And you’re thinking that I haven’t been spoiling you as much as I could be hmm?”

They were teasing, just like they always did. Inside here? With one another? They felt safe from the outside world and all those who would seek to attack them. They could trust one another implicitly.

“Yup! I want a puppy”.

He descends into laughter and Harleen hops off of him, helping him up so he doesn’t reopen the sutures. “Ohhh…”.

“Sore?”

“A little” he admits. 

“Alright, let’s get showered and get to bed. I’ll go ask Vic where he keeps that modified Aloe Vera of his. Really works wonders”.

It was true and Bruce found himself excited to get some if it would alleviate the pain. Undoubtedly the man would be in the library where he always was. 

His friend would also have his own comments to add about retirement. After all, he desperately wanted Dinah and him to do the same.

More...private time he’d guess. Or just help with the kids. Probably both.

**_Mayoral Mansion_ **

Harvey was tired, and sitting at this desk wasn’t helping at all. ‘There’s just so much to do’ he bemoans to himself mentally. Looking back down he reaffixes his glasses and tries to read the same line on the same bill for the tenth time in a row. It still wasn’t making sense, and he removes the glasses in anger, throwing them to the side.

He leans back in his chair and rubs the bridge of his nose.

“Hard day at work Harvey?”

He jumps back in fear, not having expected to hear anyone, and when he looks around he sees that nobody was in the room. He swallows fearfully, sensing something familiar about the voice. “Ohh...you thought I was gone right? Heheh...that because you got married, settled down and had a few babies that I just went away? Poof, like a bad dream?”

Harvey puts his head in his hands on the desk and takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He hadn’t heard this particular voice in years, and now? Here it was again. If he looked in a mirror he knew that he’d see it. The twisted angry version of himself that he tried to hide.

“What’s the matter...Two Face?”

That instantly raises his hackles. “Don’t call me that” he growls out, and apparently this pleases the voice. “Why? Isn’t that what you are?”

“No...no”. 

  
A newspaper column had recently run an add for a political opponent, a young woman from one of the poor districts of the Narrows. Well...not FROM the Narrows strictly speaking. She just ran on that, pretending to be one of the poor, downtrodden souls from that sector. 

She was born in the affluent neighborhood of High Gate, just outside the city. She was privilege in all its glory. Private schools, scholarships, trust fund. The whole thing. And she was running a particularly nasty campaign to oust Harvey from his position as Mayor.

When she first started running, promising a whole myriad of reforms that were either insane or simply impossible, he’d thought, a little pompously he’d admit, that there would be no real challenge. He’d fought hard for this city. Crime was down and the economy was up. What more did the people want?  
  


“The people are stupid Harvey” the voice teases. “She danced and put out a tweet. That’s all it’s gonna take to kick you out”.

“No...no you’re wrong”.

“Am I?” the voice asks mockingly. “I don’t think so fucker. I think you’re going down. And where’s your wife these days? Running around in skin tight onesies fighting crime huh? Nah. She’s got a side piece. One who isn’t all burnt up”.

“No. She’s with…”.

“Her boyfriend right now, and he’s plowing her to hell and back” the voice chuckles. “Ohh yeah, he is. And when you lose? He’s gonna take her all for himse…”.

“SHUT UP!”

Harvey jumped up in his chair and slams his fist down on the wooden desk, frightening a figure in front of him whom he didn’t even realize was in the room. “Ohh Harleen...shi...sorry...sorry”.

He was sweating profusely, and the little girl was looking up at him curiously, unsure of what to make of her father at this point. She looks around the room, wondering who he couldn’t been talking to. “Umm...just came to say goodnight I guess”.

“Ohh sweetie...well…” he smiles, trying to get his demeanor back but it was clear that it wasn’t working. “Well, goodnight sweetie”.

The girl doesn’t say anything and simply shrugs, making to turn back and head to her room. Her father wasn’t done yet though, and he moves forward to stop her for a moment, the girl rarely wanting to spend time with him anymore.

  
“Hey sweetie...tomorrow, how about we go to the park huh? All of us as a family?”

This seems to surprise the girl and Harleen already had an answer. “Sorry dad. Already hanging out with Stephanie tomorrow”.

“Ohh...well maybe…”.

She was already gone by the time the words left his mouth, and he was left alone in his office, though not quite along. The voice begins again, chuckling as he looks sadly down at his feet. “Hehe...even your own daughter hates you”.

  
Harvey doesn’t say anything back and he simply tries to block it out, convincing himself that soon the voice would disappear again. 

It had to.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just wanna note the first part of this chapter is really dark so be warned.

**_???????_ **

The tears ran over her cheeks uncontrollably, though the cries she wanted to let out of her mouth were muffled by the gag that had been placed about it. In fact, her whole body was bound. Her wrists were tied into the steel table by two interconnected straps that hel them above her head, while her legs were tied down equally as adeptly.

For hours she had laid there, on the cold steel table, sometimes struggling and most times just sobbing. The only light she had to illuminate her surroundings was a Charlie lamp that hung down from the ceiling. Its faint glow was anything but comforting, and she tried to scream out again in fear.

“Ohhh tsk, tsk, tsk...none of that. None of that. It really isn’t good for a woman to be so scared”.

The voice was coming from the darkness, and from it she knew that her captor was back, though for what purpose? She could only guess at. His voice, despite his spoken words, does the very opposite of belay her fear, and indeed it only makes her more and more desperate to escape.

“Adrenaline. It’s a pesky little thing isn’t it? It can turn your hair grey or cause your skin to wrinkle. It most certainly isn’t something that’s good for a woman. Especially not one as beautiful as you”.

Just like that, his figure emerges from the darkness.

Professor Pyg.

He was a well built man from what she could see of him. Tall and muscular though it was hidden beneath the bloody apron he wore. The most frightening thing about him was the mask he wore. It was shaped as a pig, hence his name, and his all of his features from the women who had become his victims. 

Slowly he moves closer to the gurney and kneels down so that he was facing the girl, eye to eye, though in his case it was through the eyeholes of the pink plastic mask. She struggles and tries to move away from him, though the straps keep her at bay. She begins to plead, and due to the gag about her mouth the words she tried to speak only come out as muffled groans. 

He notices this, and tilts his head as if he was studying a rare species of bug. Perhaps in his mind he was. 

Suddenly he moves upright, and a light tinkling sound could be heard coming from his throat. He was chuckling. “Ohhh...what a fool I am. A fool”.

He moves away and splays his arms out, calming her down for a moment as he points to the mask. “It’s the mask isn’t it? It’s scaring you right?”

  
She was confused, but in the end she plays along, hoping that the knowledge she’d gleaned from some of the police investigator shows would help her now. ‘On the tv, playing along buys you time!’ she reminds herself, hoping that that was one of the few things that would remain true of reality that she saw on the screen.

Slowly she nods in agreement, though it wasn’t a lie. 

The mask petrified her.

“Ahh well, like I said, we can’t have that now can we?” He reaches up and behind his head, moving the elastic upwards over the top of his head while his fingers grip at the edges, trying to keep it in place. For a moment the girl is worried that whatever was lurking under the mask would be more horrifying than the mask itself and she braces herself for that possibility. However, when the mask is removed and her captor tosses it onto a surgical table, she’s shocked to find a rather handsome visage.

The man behind the mask had rugged features and beautiful piercing brown eyes. A strong jawline and perfectly brushed hair completed the picture. He reminded her of one of the old movie stars that her mother and grandmother used to watch on the television. 

_ “Try to find yourself a man who looks like that Carmelita!” _

Her grandmother’s words, spoken as a joke back then, came back to haunt her now and part of it is darkly humorous to her. ‘Well...I found one abuela. Thanks alot’.

He smiles as he once again points to his face. “See? Not so scary anymore huh?”

  
Despite her feelings that he was indeed still horrifying, if not in appearance then in deed, she shook her head no. This seemed to placate and please the man who nods, turning back to the wall where a series of tools and implements were. “See? We can all work together now can’t we? I have a job…”. He stops for a moment, standing stock still before a horrifying sound escapes his throat.

It sounded like a mix between a sniff and a squeal, reminding her of the sound a pig would make while eating. She watches as the man shakes, his hands moving up to run through his hand in frustration. She became fearful again, though a more apt description would be that her already predominant fear was increased by his act, and she tugs on her bindings once more.

She knew the signs of mental instability when she saw it. 

The sound subside however, and he seems to calm himself down, placing his palms on the counter and taking deep, normal sounding breaths.    
  
When that had run its course he slowly reaches across to where a gramophone was sitting, and he reaches down to a milk crate on the floor to retrieve a wax record which he then places on the player and positions the needle. Music begins to play, a soft and then very loud operatic piece that adds an air of the preposterous and the macabre to the already horrific environment.

“Ahh...doesn’t music just calm you?” he asks, his back still to her as he reaches down to grasp a surgical scalpel in his left hand and a measuring tape in his right. “I know it does for me”. He turns and begins to walk back towards her, sending shivers down her spine at seeing the metallic gleam in the darkness. 

She wants to flinch but she remembers that she was playing along.

‘Don’t show any emotion. Don’t provoke him. We can survive this Lita’.

She always did that. Reverted the the pet name that her mother would call her as a child. Especially when she was scared. “Yous see...beauty? Well...it isn’t everything”. He pulls a rolling chair close to the side of the gurney and takes a seat, noticing for a moment that she was too high up. “Un memento”.    
  
He reaches down and pumps the lever on the base of the table which brings her lower, allowing him to tower over her once again. He backs this action up by tapping the scalpel against her arm, seemingly in tune with the song that was playing. He smiles down at her in what was a facsimile of comfort. 

“Luciano Pavarotti” he explains. “Vesti La Giubba. I Pagliaccio”.

He shrugs and brings up the measuring tape, bringing it across her forehead to measure out her proportions. She feels her breathing become labored, not helped at all by the gag, but otherwise remains still. “I used to love going to that opera as a child. It was always….a perfect night”. He looks off into the distance, seemingly through time itself.

“Yes. Perfect”.

He brings the tape up higher, measuring around her arms and shoulder. “You see, my mother always wanted the best for me. She would say “Lazlo, you are the most perfect little boy” and kiss me on the forehead. Always the best she wanted for her son. Always the best”.

He moves away for a moment, retrieving a marker as he marks whatever he was looking for on her specifically. She lets him, though she doesn’t have much choice any way.

“I always got the best. Best clothes, best schooling, the best friends. I was going to be an actor you know?”

She nods along, pretending to be paying attention.

“Well, those dreams were...cut a little short”. Here he manages to make the pig noise again, something that she found rather humorous in how his handsome roman nose was scrunched up as he did it. He hears her chuckles under the gag and glares at her, stopping her right in her tracks. The raw hatred she saw in those eyes…

“Don’t laugh at me!”

He brings the scalpel close to her neck and presses the sharp point right against her vein, testing her. Carmelita’s eyes go wide and she makes to nod to his demand before realizing that doing so would cut her wide open. Instead she just stares, trying to communicate nonverbally that she wouldn’t laugh at him any longer.

His glare goes on for a few more seconds until a particularly deep chord is struck within the song and his head goes back and his eyes close, almost in orgasmic bliss it seemed. “Ahhh yes...do you hear that? Yes, that is certainly class. The deep baritone mixing with the piano...ahhhh yes. Contrast. Beauty...perfection”.

He moves his hand over her dirty tank top clad chest, feeling her out in a very invasive way. Despite how it felt and how it undoubtedly looked, she didn’t detect a trace of sexual intent or pleasure on his part. Instead he was simply...feeling her. Searching for something.

“Hmm...not exactly the perfect base I would say”.

That worried her. He sounded disappointed, and if he was disappointed then undoubtedly she was not going in the right direction. His hands move off of her and she breaths a sigh of relief, not enjoying the sensation of his touch one bit.

“But...there are other things I like. Your ears for example”. He grasps the side of her head and pushes it to the side, allowing him to get a better look at her untouched ear lobes. “So very rare to find a woman who does not besmirch her body with holes….yes. Your ears. Perfect”.

He releases her and as soon as she is able to move she turns her head back upright, not wanting to miss a single detail in case she got out of this and would be able to talk to the police. She wanted to tell them everything and put this sick creep away forever.

“Ahh, now...what was I saying? Ohh yes...perfection. Well, like all beings that are perfect, they seek a perfect mate. They want to see their own beauty reflected back to them and then they want to recreate it. All perfectly natural. Me however….I could find no perfect match”.

His voice was tinged with sadness.

“Ohh sure. Many women threw themselves at me. Some would even be called “nice”. My friends all asked me, “why don’t you settle down with Alice?” or “why not go out on one date with Heather?” Bahh...they didn’t understand. None of them did. Do you know why?”

She shakes her head now, fearful again as he had taken that opportunity to tap the dull edge of the scalpel against her nose playfully. “Because they weren’t perfect. Anywho...I gave up on finding the perfect woman. And mother, ohh mother...she was so upset with me. So cross. Ohh you shouldn’t seen the rage she had! My, my. Ohh it hurts to think on it...but it’s also the only thing I can ever think on nowadays” he exclaims. 

“My mother, who claimed to love me….suddenly hated me. I was now “imperfect”. One half of a set. Broken. Unusable. I lost everything...everything. I do not blame her of course. She was right to cast me out for that unforgivable crime. So...I had to sit back and reflect. I needed to find the perfect woman, but...she didn’t exist. No, but...I could create her”.

At this he grabs her ear and twists it upward, hurting her deeply as he smashes the side of her head into the table and keeps it there with his fearsome strength. Carmelita begins to cry, the pain being something she wasn’t used to. ‘Ohhh god...why! Why! What do you want?’

She’d been asking these questions of herself ever since she was hit from behind and knocked out the other day. She didn’t even know how long it had been. Had a police report been filed? Was anyone looking for her? ‘Am I going to die?’

A strange sensation begins to take hold of her, and it instantly turns into a flaming and excruciating pain. He was using the scalpel to saw off her ear. She cried and struggled, though it did no good. He just kept sawing through the cartilage with the practiced ease of a surgeon. “The parts are all there..laying about actually. I mean, how often do you use your ears really?”.

He found his little joke hilarious but she? She was in too much pain. She cries hot tears and bites down, her legs kicking in and out as far as they were allowed which wasn’t far.

Soon though, the grisly work was completed. 

But not fully.

As she tries to catch her breath and come down from the pain, her head is roughly turned to the opposite side and slammed down on the hole where her ear used to be. White hot tendrils shoot through her head and she almost blacks out just in time for him to being the action on her other ear. “So much perfection was out there...but it was sprinkled over. Not contained or concentrated in one single woman”.

With a final rip her ear is gone as well, and he releases her, a sobbing crying mess. Blood pooled from both open wounds and ran down the length of the table and out onto the tiled floor. He was unconcerned by this and merely brings the severed body parts upwards into the light where he could further study them. “Ahh yes...perfect. Perfect ears”.

He stands up, seemingly forgetting about the woman who was now screaming in pain. He moves across the room to a large steel door and he opens it with one hand, wanting to rapidly get the ears to where they would best be preserved. She turns her head to see, getting a glimpse into the meat locker as he entered.

Even through the drumbeat of pain she was experiencing, she can gaze upon the horror contained within.

Racks were positioned within the confines of the room, and the chilled air seeps out as it impacts against the relatively warm breeze within the loosely termed surgical theater. On these rocks were human body parts, all presumably belonging to a woman. 

She saw a set of hands dangling on a meathook, and a face stretched out across a few tiles, forever frozen in a horrified grimace. She struggles against her bonds, clawing at them with a desperate strength that only forces the leather straps to dig deeply into her wrists.

There was no more playing along. This wasn’t a tv show. This was real life and she knew that if she didn’t do something, she was going to die.

Lazlo had begun to sing to himself, mimicking the song that was still vibrantly playing on the gramophone, his voice loud and grating. He grasps a plastic bin, seemingly impervious to the sounds his captive was making, and places the ears within it for further keeping.

“Ahh...perfectly preserved. Perfect, perfect, perfect!”

  
He had begun to childishly sing that song to himself, turning and practically skipping out of the cold room as he closes the door with a harsh thud behind him. “Ahh yes...hrgg, hrgg”. He was squealing now, and it showcased a dramatic shift in his eyes as it had before. Carmelita wasn’t laughing anymore though. Nothing about this was funny.

His eyes land on the scalpel he’d left on the table, and he quickly advances back to her, all of the class and faux comforting gone now. He was nothing more than Professor Pyg once more, and he showcases this by replacing the mask upon his face.

He looms much larger over Carmelita now that he was standing fully over the gurney, and his foot begins to pump her upwards. She thrashes about in horror, like a caged animal that knew her death was near. When she was far enough up, he picks up the surgical blade and presses his hand against her throat, letting her feel the cold steel.

With his other he reaches into his apron and retracts a remote, turning on an old tv set which, until it was turned on and the light from its screen illuminated its presence, had been hidden in the darkness. 

He wasn’t paying attention to what was on the screen though. After all, it was only to muffle the sounds the girl was going to make. “Hrnng hrrgnngnggn” he squeals, replacing the remote back into the front pocket of his apron and reaching down to remove her gag. The release was painful for her, it having been on so long, but as she inhaled the stagnant air of the room she felt as if she had been blessed by God himself.

She also took this opportunity to plead.

“Please! Please...Lazlo...please don’t kill me! Let me...let me...I...I have babies! Pleas…”.

With a quick slice against her throat, a thin red line that escapes her notice, the woman’s begging is cut short, and only a gurgled gasp could be heard. The thin red line becomes a wide raging river and then proceeds to flood out over the plains of her neck, covering them in her red lifeforce.

“I thought about hrngngng...saving your voice...removing your vocal cords...but...hrgnngng...just not perfect”.

Carmelita was gagging now, trying to stay alive. She wanted to reach out for her wound, contain it with her hand, but she was prevented by the mere face that she hadn’t been freed from her other bonds. 

Within seconds she was dead and Lazlo, perfect as he was, was left alone.

He walks over towards the gramophone and stands by it, waiting for the song to end before removing the record and setting it gently to the side. Sound still continues though, and it was from the television. A news report apparently. About him.

He didn’t care much for publicity. No. He did his best work in the dark. 

He looks back at the dead girl laying on the gurney and shakes his head. “Pity…” he bemoans. “All I need is a base and a voice...hrngnng hrrnngng...and I shall have my perfect bride. Too chubby, and too whiny. Too nasally. Your ears will do for my wife though. They’ll do”.

  
With a long suffering sigh he sits down in the chair and removes his mask once more, rubbing at the side of his cheeks as he takes in his post homicidal surroundings. The tv was the only sound that could be heard and soon, the words sink into his brain.

“We now go live to Commissioner Renee Montoya, who has a few words to share on the subject of the serial killer known as Professor Pyg”.

He looks up and watches disinterestedly as the camera cuts away to the city’s police commissioner, and then, as soon as his eyes land upon her visage, does his apathy end. “We are doing our best to apprehend this madman. We’re getting ever closer to slipping the metaphorical noose around his neck”.

He slams himself forward until he was on his knees before the tv, glued to it as he takes in every one of her pixelated features. He already had the perfect face...but her body? Her voice? The two missing features? They were perfect.

“Commissioner?”

“Yes Ms. Vale?”

“Do you have anything to add about the role that the so called Bat Clan played in securing four of Pyg’s potential victims the other night? And do you have any word on the still missing Carmelita Rojas?”

He smiles at this, knowing exactly where the girl was. He couldn’t refrain from a bit of gallows humor either. He turns his head over his shoulder, stares at the body and begins to laugh. “Hey, sleepyhead? You made the news!”

He descends into more laughter which quickly turns into even more snorting and squealing, though his eyes were forever focused on Montoya. “Ohh my dear...you’ll complete the whole thing”.

Montoya was naturally unaware of the psychopath's sudden interest in her and continues to speak, wanting to answer the reporter’s question. “Gotham City, is, as usual, grateful for the assistance of the Batman”.

“Commissioner...if I may say, you seem a little...I don’t know, ambivalent about the Batman and his allies now? In fact, for a while now it’s seemed as if your opinion and stance on them was changing. Is there anything to that?”

Renee leans into the microphone and simply says, “no comment”.

That set off another flurry of questions, all of which pertained to the Batman. It was clear from Renee’s body language that the last thing she wanted to discuss right then was Batman and his group of heroes. She leans into the microphone again and simply says, “this press release is over. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Professor Pyg, please step forward or call us anonymously. Thank you”.

And with those final parting words she steps away from the podium and leaves the crowd of reporters to swarm around each other as if they were piranha, all continuing to ask questions in the vain hope of having them answered, or at least trying to seem like they had attempted to ask them for their bosses back at the station.

Lazlo however, was still enthralled by her, and watches every movement she makes with the same dedication that the onsight camera was using. “She’s perfect...her body, her movements...perfect...hrnngng hrnrnr”. He reaches out and traces his finger over the screen that still bore her figure upon it. “Soon beloved. Soon...I shall add you to my collection, and you will be my completed bride”.

**_Arkham Asylum, Warden’s Office_ **

It was a stormy day outside, and Harleen found that she wanted nothing more than to sit and watch the drops come down through the barred window of her office. All of Arkham’s windows were barred now, a safety precaution.

Sometimes it made one wonder who the jailers and prisoners actually were.

A knock on the door disturbs her thoughts, and the blonde moves up in her chair and places the coffee cup she’d been holding down on the desk. “Come in”.

The door, ancient and oak, creeks open and in steps Doctor Joan Leland. That put a smile on Harleen’s face as quickly as anything else, and she quickly gets up out of her chair and moves around the desk to see her older friend and colleague. 

“Joan. How are you today? Sit down. Take a load off”.

The woman smiles and nods, indeed taking the proffered seat from her technical boss but in actuality friend and protege. “Warden Wayne”.

“Yikes, stop with the formality. Do you want a cup of coffee? Tea? Or did you just want to see me?”

The jesting innuendo makes Joan roll her eyes as most of Harleen’s jokes did but still, a cup of tea sounded quite good to the woman. “Tea please” she says, watching as her boss retrieves a tea bag and a cup from a cupboard she kept just for this purpose. While Harleen meddles around on the other side of the room, Joan takes a moment to look at the contents of her office. 

Not much had changed in twelve years, though it had all aged.

The kitten poster that said “hang in there”, with a little kitten clinging to a wire was still pinned to the wall, but alongside it were multiple different photographs in frames and hanged on the wall. Harleen and her family. Her wedding day. Her son and daughters. Her sister and her mother.

They all hung in prominence while her GCU doctoral certificate was thrown on top of a filing cabinet as if it was of no importance other than to show that she was allowed to be where she was. The woman smiles to herself, taking great pride in how far Harleen had come from being the nervous temporary psychiatrist to a tough but loving, no nonsense warden. 

Arkham was a name that was respected now, but it wasn’t a name that people wanted to hear. At least not anymore.

Joan’s thoughts are interrupted as Harleen comes back with her cup of tea, placing it down right in front of her on an empty space atop her very cluttered desk. “There you go. Milk, no sugar. Just how you like it”. She then moves back around her desk to reassume her position in her chair, eyeing the woman across from her with unabashed curiosity.

Joan doesn’t get to the point. Instead? She wants to reminisce for a little while. “Do you remember when that reporter...what was her name? Louise Lake or something?”

Harleen smiles and shakes her head, taking a sip of her coffee before answering. “Lois Lane actually. And yeah. She wanted to do an interview with me for Woman’s Life or something like that. All flattery...until I didn’t say what she wanted me to say”.

Joan laughs aloud at the memory, having been in the office when it happened. “I just thought about that because I was looking at all your pictures and then your degree. I remember her having her panties in a ruffle over that”. Joan straightens her back and assumes a posh, superior position to mock the non-present reporter. “You should display your diploma more prominently in your office Doctor Quinzel. After all, you’re an inspiration to little girl’s everywhere now”.

Harleen rolls her eyes. “She was blowing smoke up my butt. No little girl or boy” she adds, “looks at the warden of an asylum for the criminally insane and says “there! That’s what I wanna be when I grow up!” she laughs.

Joan joins her and nods. “Yup. She didn’t like your answer about being more proud of your family before all of this either. I remember her calling you regressive and “not very feminist” Joan says with air quotations.

“Ohh I gave it to her good”.

Joan now took the opportunity to mimic Harleen’s response to the pompous, overconfident reporter. “Last I checked toots, feminism was about choice, and I choose to be a wife and mother first”.

“She was not expecting that!”

The two women share a laugh at that and then settle into easy silence, Joan realizing that she had to say what she needed to say. “I’m retiring Harleen”. The blonde goes stock still and nods at her, reaching into her bottom drawer and opening it. “I kind of figured tha...hey...where’s the celebratory vodka I keep here?”

“You and Doyle finished that bottle four years ago after Jerry was released sweetie”.

“Are you sure? I could’ve swore…”.

“Positive” Joan reiterates. “I was the one who hid the empty bottle until it could be thrown out properly. I didn’t want any of the patients seeing it”.

“We weren’t drunk...if I remember correctly”.

“You weren’t...but Doyle was” Joan snickers. “That’s right! We had to hide him for the rest of the day. Else he would’ve gotten sacked”. 

“Hmm...good times”.

“We did some good here right? Like...I was good at running this place, would you say so?” Harleen asks nervously. “Of course Harleen and you still do a good job!” Joan comforts, reaching across the table to take the younger woman’s hand in her own. “You’re not going anywhere right?”

“Nah...no, no...lots of work still to do it’s just...ahh, well, I feel like I’m getting old and with you leaving now too? I don’t know, feels like the end of an era”. She was speaking about more than just Joan’s retirement of course. Her mind was fixated on the ever looming threat of her having to hang up her suit for good. Joan of course didn’t know that but still, she seemed to understand.

“I know Harleen. And, well...it kind of is” she says. “So many of the major villains have been rehabilitated and moved on. Arkham is becoming a lot more empty these days due to effective outpatient treatment, Mayor Dent’s new healthcare system, much more effective policing….Arkham...well...it might be a thing of the past soon”.

“Where does that leave me?” Harleen asks sadly, leaning back in her chair and wishing that she had that vodka now more than ever. “Well, it leaves you with your family for starters”.

Harleen mulls over that for a second and eventually nods, smiling widely at how easily Joan could put things into perspective. “Huh...I guess that’s right ain’t it? Turns out that you can be the head head shrink and still need one yourself from time to time”.

“I’ll send Bruce the bill for my services”.

Both women share a hearty laugh at that and soon the conversation turns back to Joan’s retirement. “Where are you gonna go? Staying in Gotham?”

“Me? No...no, I need the sun. Warm sand and beaches before I clock out for good Harleen” Joan admits. “I’m heading down to Tampa. Get a tan and go to Disney World maybe. Who knows?”

Harleen laughed at the mental image her words conjured up, of Joan on a beach wearing a Mickey Mouse ears hat. “Well Joan...I wish you the best of luck in everything you do. None of this would’ve been possible without you and...well...I’m gonna miss ya”. She’d started to tear up and so had Joan, the two women moving to embrace one another. “Ohh sweetie...I’m not leaving just yet. I’ll be settling a few things in Gotham first. Old friends to say goodbye too...old enemies to give the finger to. That kind of stuff”.

Harleen hugs her closer, feeling a sense of loss she could only akin to pseudo mourning. “Always with the jokes”.

Jokes.

That word brought another point to the woman’s mind, and slowly she detaches from Harleen’s arms to look her in the eye while maintaining a grip on her upper arms. “Harleen...are you going to Dick’s parole hearing?”

“.....I don’t know”.

“I wouldn’t fault you if you didn’t want to. I’m just asking because he’s the last juvenile offender in Arkham. With him gone? That entire wing will be closed. It’s just more effective and cheaper to send them to Philadelphia where they aren’t amongst...well..you know”.

It was clear what she was referring to. 

Young, fragile and sometimes broken minds were ripe grounds for bombastic criminal personalities to imprint their own identity on. As the Joker had done with Dick. “You were the last one to interview him Joan. What do you think?”

“Personally or clinically?”

“With you? They’re both the same difference”.

Joan acknowledges that to be true with a nod and decides to answer as honestly as possible. “Well...he’s shown incredible remorse and guilt for what he’s done. He appears sane, takes his meds on a regular basis. Even got a Masters degree after he graduated highschool. Wrote a book”.

“So you think he should be released?”

“I didn’t say that...well...maybe. I don’t know Harleen. I feel like I’m too old to give a unbiased opinion. I want him to have a second chance, but what would that second chance be? To live his life, or to simply take another person’s?”

“There’s also the question of the girl”.

“Ahh that’s right. He married her right?” Harleen nods in affirmation, remembering when the court injunction came in to allow a priest to perform the marital rights for Dick Grayson, a.k.a Jester, and his wife, the newly name Delia Grayson. She’d protested of course, saying that neither were sane and rational enough to marry one another but...the courts had something different to say and the two were considered sane enough, and legally able, to marry one another.

It was out of her hands and now? So was his parole.

“She’s pretty “sane” too, if you can call not remembering a single thing about your past sane” Joan says. Harleen was less sure. “He raped her Joan” she says. “He raped her and made her like him. It’s a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome”.

“Hey you don’t have to convince me. I’m in your camp but we all know the city doesn’t listen to us doctors anymore”.

“Harvey Dent does”.

Joan smirks at that and quirks an eyebrow. “Your friend doesn’t count. He listens to everyone. In fact, he listens too much. How that’s not driving him up the wall, I’ll never know”. Harleen didn’t have an answer either, and that scared her. She hadn’t seen Harvey in a while and all she had to go on was Pamela who just said that Harvey was fine.

‘I should check up on him and soon’.

“Well...whatever you decide sweetie, just know you did all you could for him. It’s in a few hours so I guess you have time to change your mind”.

“How do you know I’m not going?” she asks.

“I can see it in your eyes”.

“Yeah, I guess that’s fair enough”. Joan gets up to leave, standing in the middle of the room for a second and appraising it again. “I already told everyone else. Saved you for last because I knew you’d be the hardest. Hmm…”.

  
Harleen picked up on the tone of her voice and couldn’t help but ask what was on her mind. “What?”

“Nah, just...thinking”. She keeps looking around and eventually shrugs. “Surprises me. Sharpe had such a nice well ordered office and he did jack all. Your office looks like a tornado went through it but you’ve changed this whole place around. So much so that in a few years we might not even need it”.

“We’ll always need Arkham” Harleen defends, though her voice lacked conviction. “Well...I guess as long as he’s here yes”.

Joan makes to exit, wanting to pack up what little she had left around the hospital. It was just like Doctor Leland. Don’t tell anyone, drop the bomb and then leave. She couldn’t be mad. That was just Joan.

“Joan…”.

Harleen had one last question.

“Yeah?”

“If you were me...and you had the decision on...him...what would you do?”

Joan takes a deep breath and turns to face the warden, a grim line of determination over her mouth as she delivers and answer that had been written in her mind for years now. “If it were up to me? I’d cave his skull in and bury his green haired ass under this place before burning it down atop him”.

Harleen wasn’t shocked. Hell, the answer was tame in comparison to what she expected. It wasn’t anything she herself didn’t want to do. “Yeah, I kind of figured that”. Joan nods and turns the door handle, opening it up. “You’re a better person than me Harley...so don’t go down that path huh? And if you find yourself sliding? Leave”.

“Thanks Joan. I’ll remember that”.

“We’ll have lunch some time this week. Exchange more pleasantries, talk about the kids and what not. Like always”. Harley waves and nods, leaning against her desk. “Sounds good Joan. Bye”. With that final farewell, Joan Leland leaves Arkham for the final time, and another hole in Harleen’s life opens up.

She crosses her arms over her chest and sighs loudly, comforting herself by running her hands up and down her shoulders. It was a tactic that usually worked for her and worked well. Now though? It wasn’t convincing her that she shouldn’t be at the parole hearing.

She reaches for her coat and throws it around her shoulders, grabbing her keys and pocketbook as well before closing her office up behind her. ‘At least Bruce lets me take the porsche to work’.

**_Gotham City District Court_ **

“Mr. and Mrs. Grayson will you please rise?”

The judge was a rather birdlike woman who’d been assigned to this court only a few years back following the departure of a retiring judge, and she held dominion over the court like the kings and queens of old. Her word was literally law, but to her? It was more than that. It was a divine right.

And she used that right whenever she could.

The two defendants and their lawyer stand, huddled close together as they seek out comfort from the other’s presence. Both looked odd as they were, green hair and white skin but dressed in a formal suit and a pantsuit respective of their genders. The newly christened Delia, who didn’t remember her real name, grasps her husband’s hand tightly.

“This court has deliberated your crimes and the unique circumstances surrounding them. Your sanity and indeed your competence to stand trial has come under fire and remained a contentious point up until now. However…”.

Those words were loaded with all the promise of hell and damnation or heaven and redemption. All they could do was wait.

The judge was playing it out though, enjoying every second until she could hold it in no longer. “However,” she continues, picking up where she left of. “It had been decided that it is in the best interests of this court to grant your parole under conditions that will be read to you following your agreement...do you understand?”

The couple didn’t respond immediately as they took their time to throw themselves into one another’s arms, kissing each other passionately to the chagrin of the District Attorney who glared. DA Ellen Yin was viciously opposed to letting them out, citing that Jester’s crimes had been committed on his own accord while he was well away from the Joker.

Delia?    
  
She didn’t even know what to make of Delia other than that she was completely dedicated to the man, then boy, who’d defiled her and poisoned her mind. The scene was watched by everyone in the court room, including Harleen who sat in the back, trying to hide her presence as best as she could.

“We did it sweetie...we did it”.

“I love you Delia. So much”.

Dick was beyond ecstatic, and it showed in the wide smile he wore on his face. Most were discomforted by it, having seen it one too many times before twisted in maniacal glee. “Mr and Mrs. Grayson?”

The judge draws them back in, reclaiming their attention. “Ohh yes...sorry Judge Sampson”.

“Hmm...the terms of the granting of your parole are as follows. You are to immediately seek out employment. The state will help you find a place as...well, let me be honest, nobody in their right mind would hire you of their own accord”.

Dick frowned at that, not exactly liking being talked down to, but he’s calmed and prevented from making a scene with an outburst by Delia molding herself into his side. “You are to remain away from the Joker and any of your former gangland associates for the rest of your life. Your are to be drug tested for the so called Joker Venom as well as any other illegal narcotics. Your are to continue to seek outpatient medical assistance and, just for added measure, I don’t even wanna see a parking ticket so it’s better if you just walk or take the bus everywhere. Is this understood?”

“Yes judge!” Delia says excitedly. “I promise...all of that stuff? It’s behind us. We wanna make it up to the city, what we did”.

  
“Well as they say Mrs. Grayson, talk is cheap. We want you to prove it. And you better do so, one single misstep? And I’ll bury you. Understand?”

At this point DA Yin was packing up her briefcase and all of the case notes that she had taken hoping to be able to use them. They documented the long litany of felonies and misdemeanors that were committed by Jester alone. 

In the end? The city was all too willing to forget. Times were good after all.

She passes Harleen in the rear docket and casts a sympathetic glance at the woman, stopping to place her hand on her shoulder. “Mrs. Wayne...I didn’t realize you’d be here” she says trepidatiously.

‘Ahh, the cover story’.

The city had been spun a tale of how Barbara was killed during the Jester’s assault on Wayne Manor. It was the only rational way to keep her secret identity, and thus their own, hidden. She didn’t carry a direct rage at the boy for that, and indeed Ivy’s pheromones prevented him from remembering the way the actual crime happened. 

He’d apologized for killing Barbara...but Harleen or Bruce, really any of the Waynes never responded. He didn’t kill Barbara directly, but he was certainly a leading role in it. His attack on the manor, him telling her where Blackfire was hiding? He’d caused her death in his own little way, just short of pulling the trigger.

“I had to be”.

“I see...well...I’m very sorry that we couldn’t keep him behind bars. He deserves to be there. Maybe Delia but him? No...no”. Yin casts a baleful look back at the judge who was pounding her gavel to signify the end of the proceedings and the newly freed couple who were still embracing one another.

“Funny. We used to have a bad city with lax judges. Then we have a bad city with hard judges that helped clean it up for a while. Now? We have a lax judge with a way too liberal view on amnesty and it’s going to cause this all to go right back to where it was. Thank god we have Batman and Batwoman”.

That last sentence hit her harder as again, the city most likely wouldn’t have them for long. “Well, we have other heroes” Harleen says, wanting to get out of this courtroom before she did something she’d regret. 

“True, but none of them inspire the hope that those two do”.

“Well...maybe it’s time we look inside for our own heroes”. Harleen stands and begins to walk towards the exit, followed by Yin. Dick had just noticed her, and was trying to make his way over until he realized that she most certainly didn’t want to be bothered with yet another apology from him for killing her daughter.

She didn’t want to hear it. Not now.

She just wanted to go home.

**_Atlantic Ocean, S.S Merlot_ **

The ship was old and rusty, barely on its last leg. But it would do. In fact it would do even more so for their purposes. Nobody would double check a rusty old freighter pulling into Gotham Harbor, nor would they question the beautiful redhead from overseas who disembarked from it.

No. They wouldn’t question anything.

So she hoped.

“You seem troubled”.

Barbara turns to see Ras standing behind her, dressed in a turtleneck sweater and a pair of work pants. “Don’t I look like a random sailor? Hah..I’ve always loved these little excursions”. He moves up to the rail beside her and leans over it, admiring the ocean view.

“Are you afraid?”

“Never”.

She wasn’t afraid. No. She was eager even. To burn down the city that had taken everything from her once only to give her something great, and take that all over again. She wanted to burn and singe every part of it. Let blood run down the gutters of the streets. Her father’s blood, her blood, her brother’s blood. All of it. Vengeance.

“Hmm...I believe you. Anyone else would lie to me but you? Ohh no, not you my dear Huntress. The bravest of my warriors. The most well trained”.

  
She remains silent, immune to the tantalizing sweetness of his praise, well aware that it could be a poison if one drank too deeply of it. Ras had no affections for particular soldiers, only their accomplishments. They themselves existed in a vacuum. There were no favorites on a personal level in the league. 

Only glory and success could speak to one’s usefulness.

The wind begins to blow and she watches two seagulls vere off across the waves in search of food. “We will be in Gotham soon” he explains. “I expect you to set up operations and do as you see fit”.

That surprised her.

“You wont be leading us in Gotham?”

“I am moving further down south with Deathstroke. There is someone I wish to speak with. Someone who has been licking his wounds a very long time. I wish to harness and use his strength”.

“Ahh”.

She asked no more questions as she had learned very quickly on that his answers only gave one more questions. You were never satisfied with what you received, so it was best never to ask.

“Do not fail me”.

“That goes without saying” she says in retort. 

“Excellent”. He makes to walk away before turning, imparting one final fact upon her. Ravager, Lady Shiva and Bronze Tiger will be joining you in Gotham as will a few of the lower echelons of the League. Use them as you see fit. Destabilization is all that matters to me”.

“It will be done”.

“Ohh and Huntress?”

She didn’t say anything, but merely waited for him to speak. It was clear that she was listening anyways. “When you are finished? Ensure that you are the only one left standing. The League will burn too in order to rebuild”.

“Yes master”.    
  
“Very good”.

  
With that he is gone, and Barbara is left to her thoughts, her read hair blowing in the wind behind her. Slowly she presses a kiss into her palm and makes a motion as if to throw it across the waves towards where she knew Gotham was waiting. “I’m coming Jason”.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Book Reccomendation: Check out the new Harley Quinn White Knight series. Well, the White Knight Series in general. If I hadn't already written "When Harley Met Bruce" I would've been writing a Harley/Bruce story in that universe.

**_The Grounds of Wayne Manor_ **

Martha took a deep breath while raising the bow and notching the arrow into the bowstring, drawing it back in one much practiced motion. It was seamless, perfect, though never enough for her trainers.

“Widen your stance”.

  
Nubia lightly lashes out with the stick she carried, hitting the young girl on the lower leg. Martha winces but does as she’s told without complaint, indeed working on moving her feet further out. “Hmm...your enemy will look for ways to take you off of your feet princess. Always be aware of that”.

“Yes Nubia”.

The dark skinned Amazon smiles, gesturing at the target that was more than one thousand feet downrange. If she had to guess she’d say it was about fifteen hundred to two thousand feet in all actuality.It was a challenge, and a challenge was something that Martha Wayne rarely refused to meet. She breaths again and steadies herself, aiming at the red dot that had been painted in the middle of the round hay bale. 

Bruce was watching interestedly, wondering if Martha was going to actually hit such an impossible mark. “Dad?”

“Yeah Mary?”

“Can Martha even see the target?”

He looks back at his daughter who was now starting to sweat as she focused. This was a precision shot, as she had already mastered the timed course for the day. All that mattered was hitting the target. “I don’t know sweetie. To be honest? Martha can do things that the rest of us really can’t”.

“I wish they would’ve given me a magical potion to make me into a demigod”.

Bruce turns to his daughter and tries to gauge what she was feeling, wanting to see if the jealousy they’d always expected to crop up was now bubbling to the surface. He was surprised at what he saw instead. Mary looked at her sister with joy and trepidation, wanting her to hit the target. 

There was a sadness there, but it wasn’t a jealousy.

“Hey…”.

She turns to look up at him, waiting for her father to say what he had to. He moves onto his knee and places his hands on her shoulders, looking her deeply in the eye. “Sweetie...I want you to know that just because you’re not a superhero, that doesn’t mean that you can’t change the world or that we don’t love you because we do. All of us”.

“I know it’s just….I want to be special”.

He smiles and gently brushes his thumb over her cheek. “You are special. Jason isn’t a hero anymore and he’s special isn’t he?”

“Yeah…”.

She seemed to be unconvinced by this line of reasoning. After all, Jason had been Robin for years before being forced to retire. It hurt to think that his relationship with his son hadn’t been the same since. He didn’t confide in them, nor did he really let them in on his day to day life. He saw them semi-frequently, but….he missed the easy rapport, the joking and he just missed his son.

It was unrealistic to think that those days would return though. Not when so much of the happiness from them hinged upon Barbara being there as well.

His thoughts lead him away, over the half forgotten dunes of the past and he’s only brought out of it by the sound of something cutting through the air. Both Waynes turn to see Martha standing in the same position she had been before, though this time the bow was devoid of an arrow and lowered to her side.

The shaft hissed through the air, and everyone craned their necks and tried to focus on where the trajectory of the arrow would lead it. A thud is heard from far off and it’s clear that at the very least it hit the target. 

But where?

None of them could be sure. 

They’d have to get a closer look at it first.

Mary was the first to move over to her sister, happy that at the very least she’d managed to hit the target. It soothed Bruce a bit more, seeing her so happy when the mood had been so melancholy only moments before. 

He gets to his feet, brushes off the grass stains upon his knees, and begins to follow after the group, watching as Martha eagerly chatted with Mary, moving ahead before any of the others. “She’s gotten really good huh?”   
  
“She is more than adequate with a bow yes” the woman says stoically, still not being quite used to openly conversing with a man. “As well as a sword and a shield. She is quick, strong and brave. All things one should look for in the ideal Amazon”.

Bruce was worried about exactly that.

When it came to the Amazons he couldn’t help but remember Diana, Wonder Woman, the title that Martha herself was going to inherit. It had a lot of baggage, and not many had forgotten the massive crimes committed by the Amazonian princess. Not the country, the world, Gotham or even her surviving sisters. 

Yet, here was Martha, training to pick up that very same mantle.

“You are troubled?”

Nubia, despite being a rather quiet woman, was all the more perceptive for it. “I’m just thinking. About Martha and the life she’s going to live. If she really wants it or not”.

“If she does, she will embrace it. If not, she will walk away, and not one of us would hold it against her. Our dearest little sister”. She smiled though quickly wiped it away, not wanting her gruff, drill sergeant like demeanor to be damaged by letting a smile be seen upon her face.

“That simple huh?”

“Yes. It is. Even in man’s world”.

“You still call it man’s world, after all this time” he notes. “Don’t you at least consider it your world too at this point?”. That seems to set the woman back as she didn’t have a clear answer to provide the man who was her host.

“Perhaps...well…”.

“It’s fine”.

He didn’t want to make his daughter’s instructor uncomfortable, and more importantly, he was close to the target where he could see something extraordinary. The arrow was lodged right in the haybale...directly in the middle of the red circle.

She’d made the shot.

An impossible one.

“Woah…”. He was in awe and a humble smile breaks over his daughter’s face while her sister dances around her, trying to talk her up. “Martha! Holy crap! Holy crap you made it! Bullseye! Ohhhhhh so awesome! That is so schway! Holy cra…”.

“Mary…” Bruce cuts her off with a wry smirk, watching as the very excited girl calms down and blushes while looking away. “Language”.

“Sorry dad”.

“Very well done Martha” Nubia says, herself in a state of shock at just how accurate the girl was with a bow. Bruce looks at it further, and then back at the general location they had been standing, or at least where Martha had been, and quickly gauges the distance. “Wow...Martha...sweetie?”

“Yeah daddy?”

He reaches out and runs his fingers through her hair. “Do you know that the world record for longest arrow shot accurately is nine hundred and thirty feet?”

She looks back at the house, trying to see the exact spot where she had launched the shaft. “Do you think I made that? Or is it a little short?”

“Sweetie….you more than doubled that distance without a doubt”. He was shocked, not only by the distance, but by the raw power his daughter had to have put into the draw of the bowstring to actually send it that far without the weight of gravity pushing it down.

She really was a demigod.

“Ohh...so...did I set the new record?”   
  


She seemed to be completely uninterested in the fact of her doing so or not, and Mary was only made much more excited by that fact. She couldn’t stop herself from jumping up and down. “Are you kidding me Martha? You obliterated it! You’re gonna get in the record books! Nobody is ever going to top this”.

Nubia herself inspected the sight of where the arrow had impacted into the hay, trying to make sense of it. She knew that the girl now had powers, but this? This was unthinkable. Looking back at the celebrating family, and specifically at Martha, she now had cause to worry. ‘What if...what if she is like Diana?’

She hated herself for such a thought, but still, she couldn’t completely bury it away. The fear was well placed. At one time nobody on Themyscira would’ve possibly thought of Diana as being capable of such horrendous crimes. Yet, here they were, in man...well, their new world because of them.

“Thank you for teaching me Nubia!”   
  


The woman’s thoughts were interrupted as Martha throws her arms around her waist, hugging her instructor tightly. “Ooof...well...you’re very welcome Martha. No need to thank me. It was my job”.

“Still”. 

The young girl was thankful, and after a few minutes she lets the towering warrior go, turning back to her father and sister. “Well, how about we celebrate this with some of Nana Elise’s famous vanilla ice cream huh?”

“Heck yeah!”

  
“Well that sounds good”.

“Come on Martha” Mary whines. “Be a bit more excited. I know you’re gonna be a big time hero and all but it’s alright to smile every once in a while”. The girl in question follows her sister’s advice and smiles though she also rolls her eyes. “Sure Mary, I’m excited”.

“Booo...you’re totally not. Buzzkill”.

“I’m not a buzzkill”.

“Yes you are”.

Martha doesn’t take her sister’s bait, something that only proves her own point in Mary’s mind. When Martha turns to Nubia she sticks her tongue out at the back of her head and Bruce just laughs and jokingly chastises her.

“Nubia would you like to come and get some ice cream with us?”

The woman didn’t expect to be invited, seeing this as undoubtedly a much more private family matter though if she were to think in retrospect the invitation wasn’t all that strange. Her and her other three sisters were always involved in Wayne family functions, though for the most part they simply acted as guards.

She was going to decline, but the pleading and eager look in young Martha’s eyes convinced her to agree. “Well, I would enjoy that yes, if the queen would see fit to allow…”.

“Pfft, of course she will dingus!” Mary shouts, not having the couth of her sister. “Now come on, ice cream!”. Mary begins to run back towards the house, followed by Martha who takes off after her, swinging her arm back behind her to urge Nubia on. “Come on Nubia! It’ll be fun”.

The two girls are practically halfway to the house by the time the dark skinned Amazon and Bruce are walking back, each looking back at the target now and again. “I can’t believe she hit that from so far away” Bruce says aloud. “I can”.

“She is really skilled with the bow”.

“Very much so”.

The man smiles to himself and continues the walk back to the mansion. “Neither one of us are good at conversation”. For some reason, she lets out a booming laugh at this rather random, but adept observation. “Yes Mr. Wayne, that is very true”.

“After all this time? Just Bruce is fine”.

“Very well Bruce”.

He becomes silent again, and his mouth is drawn into a flat unmoving line. His inner struggle could only be guessed at, though Nubia was as adept at observation as he was. “You worry for your daughter”.

It was a rhetorical question, and Bruce recognized it as such. “Yes. Well, I worry about all of them but Martha...I worry about her especially. I’m not going to be around forever, and…”.

“She wont be alone” Nubia comforts. “She’ll have all of the Amazons and her brother and sister and cousins. She is also a strong girl who will turn into an even stronger woman. She gets that from her mother…” she says while stopping to cast a sidelong glance. “And her father too a bit perhaps”.

“Now I’ve seen everything. An Amazon is teasing me”.

“Yes truly. Now your world is much smaller ohh great Alexander who has no things left to experience. Come. Ice cream awaits”.

**_GCPD_ **

She already wasn’t feeling good, and she wanted to go home. The acrid cigarette smoke filled office’s of the GCPD headquarters weren’t helping either and she rubs her head to try and alleviate the ache that was forming within. It didn’t work, not that she expected it to, though the action drew the attention of one Harvey Bullock.

“Hey commish, you don’t have to stay here really. I mean, ain’t nothing really going on ‘round here now”.

She looks up at the man who was standing over the desk and eventually can’t help but agree. She was tired, and going over years old cold cases right now wasn’t bringing anything forward. “Thanks Harv. Glad I have you around to release me from my duties”.

The man shrugs and brings his cup of coffee up to his lips, taking a deep sip. “No problem comish. If I didn’t do it, who else would?”

“I’d say Tatsu but...well, she’s out longer and longer hours nowadays. She’d probably already home sleeping. Lucky”. She smiles while thinking about her wife, whom she’d married in a courthouse four years back. ‘Mrs. Tatsu Montoya’ she thinks to herself, always loving how that sounded. 

Slowly Renee gets up and takes the jacket that hung on the back of her chair off of it, throwing it about her shoulders and securing the belt in the middle that kept it together. “So uh..make any headway with talking about...well, little pittering feet?”

“It’s called...ahh whatever the saying is. Pittle patter? I don’t know, but...no. I haven’t talked to her about it yet” Renee says, not really wanting to go into it but having a feeling that she would be anyways. “Eh, I think you’re worrying over nothing Montoya” the man continues, apparently not seeing that she didn’t want to speak on the issue.

“I mean, adoption is an option, heh...just wrote a new tagline for some city initiative hehe. Or well, the ‘ole turkey baster on either of ya”.

She turns and glares at him, shaking her head. “Wow, so much tact Harv”.

“What? Ain’t it the truth?”

He follows her into the elevator and the doors close in on them, causing the commissioner to sigh while her friend continues. “I mean, find a guy you guys want your kid to look like a little, ask him to...well, make a deposit and wham, it’s done. Pay him fifty bucks. Hell I’ll pay the fifty”.

“It’s not that easy Harvey” she admits. “Tatsu...well, she’s had a rough life and the line of work we’re both in? I don’t know if we should be mothers”. He guffaws at that. “Pfft, excuses. I think ya’d do good enough”.

“I don’t want to be just good enough Harvey. Kids deserve the best”.

“And they couldn’t do any worse than the police commish and the scary samurai lady” he says. “Well, maybe Batman and Batwoman but hey, who knows? Say...we haven’t seen the kids around in a while. Think they stopped doing it or something?”

Renee’s mood is instantly cooled by the mention of the so called, “kids of the Bat duo”. She turns to him and shakes her head. “Don’t know”. She didn’t want to think about how they’d been put in danger and how she had put them there. Not right now. Not tonight. 

“Eh well, maybe they just got bored a’ dressing up and hopping off of roofs or some crap. I know I would’ve”.

“Because you were a tubby kid”.

They were on the main floor now and she makes a beeline for the front door, wanting to get out of there now. ‘Maybe I should talk to Tatsu...honestly’. She opens the front door and steps out onto the sidewalk, the man still following. “Look, all I’m sayin’ is, the both of yas are still young and...what the...what the hell is that?!”

“What is what Harve…”.

She doesn’t finish her question as she instead was now looking out across the street to where a group of horrified civilians had gathered, all pointing upwards at the side of a building where...something was laid out. She instantly moves towards it, followed by Harvey as they wanted to get a better look.

When she does though, she wishes she hadn’t. 

  
She stops cars while crossing the street, flashing her badge to make them comply. “Police, police, outta the way yucks” Harvey shouts, serving as a very efficient battering ram when the need arose. The crowd clears and allows them to get a view, and what they see...well, they found Carmelita Rojas.

She was secured to the building by two ropes tied about her wrists, moving upwards to keep her in place. Her body was naked, stripped of all clothing and partially burnt. The only thing that identified her as the missing girl was the tattoo of a butterfly on her wrist, something that Renee picked up on instantly as she had poured over any details that might help her find the girl.

Something else stood out though, as on her chest, in a bright red liquid that could only be the girl’s blood was scrawled a message. “Renee..be mine?-Pyg” it said, and a chill works its way up her back. ‘Renee. He’s talking about me’.

She turns, trying to focus on securing what was now a blatant and bold crime scene right across from the GCPD. “Alright everyone get outta here. Police business. Bullock get back into the station. I want everyone we can get out here. Move!”

The man doesn’t make any smart quips and instead just moves off as quickly as he can to do as he’s told, a rarity in itself. Renee stayed behind to secure the crime scene, though as she placed her eyes back on the girl’s body she wished that she herself had moved to go back to the GCPD.

Instead she takes a look at the girl, trying to see what there was to see. Everything was intact, which was all that distinguished this as being different from the other bodies discovered. ‘No’ she reminds herself. ‘It’s not’. She had to stop being rattled and actually survey the scene.

The other bodies had been found hidden away, while this? Well, this one was meant to be seen. And the others hadn’t carried any personal message. This one did, and most likely to her. ‘You do fit the profile of his previous victims’ she reminds herself, not comforted by that fact at all.

‘One thing is strange though...it doesn’t look like Pyg took anything…’.

She gets closer and sees that she was wrong. Something was missing.

The girl’s ears.

**_Titan’s Tower Miagani Island_ **

His breathing was heavy as he hid behind the couch, trying to keep from being spotted. He knew, even as young as he was, that if they saw him it was over. He had to play it smart, or at least try to. 

He looks over at the door and tries to measure the distance between him and it. If he could just get through it, he’d be safe. ‘Come on...come on..remember what mommy said. Joy. Happy thoughts’. If he could get into the air he could make it in no time, convinced that his speed was unmatchable. 

There were enough dents and holes in the wall that Grid was constantly complaining about having to repair to prove it. 

‘Happy thoughts Konn’r. Happy thoughts’.

He thinks back to a few weeks prior when he was brought to the playground by his mother and she swung him on the swing. He laughed as she pushed him up higher and higher, still worried about him falling even though he was never going to get hurt in that way.

_ “Higher mommy! Higher!” _

_ “Ohh my little bumgorf...I don’t know if mommy can go much higher” _

_ “My mommy can do anything! She’s a hero!” _

_ “Ohh my little hope…”. _

He feels himself begin to ascend into the air, and for the briefest of moments he feels as if he would make it. ‘Yes! Yes!’ He begins to push himself forward, trying to gain speed but not being a master at controlling his powers yet. 

He gets halfway across the room when his dreams of escape are dashed, and the dark shape looms out at him, a roar encompassing his ear drums while his sight is obscured by dark fur. He’s pushed down, back onto the floor, before he even has a chance to use his strength. It wasn’t over though, as pinning him wasn’t this creatures only objective.

He opens his eyes to see the rows of fierce looking death, and the mouth opened wide, promising to eat him up whole. A harsh roar emanates from the lion’s mouth, though it soon gives way to loving licks as it leans down and tickles his cheek.

Konn’r begins to laugh and lightly kick out, his hands reaching up to run through the lion’s mane. “Okay! Okay! Uncle Garfield I give up!” He was laughing uncontrollably now as the green lion continues to lick him.

“Booyah, he got you little man. And I got it all on tape for proof” a loud voice booms out as Garfield moves off of his nephew and transforms back into his human form. “No fair Uncle Gar!” Konn’r protests, though a smile was still on his face. “Uncle Grid helped you”.

“Nah little man. He did it all by himself”.

“How?”   
  
“I could smell you” the green man teases, picking the boy up and hugging him, placing him on the couch next to him while reaching for the remote. “How?” Konn’r wasn’t a sore loser in the least. In fact, he loved playing no matter what. But now? He was tired, and watching some tv, most likely cartoons with Garfield having the remote, sounded very good.

“You farted you stinker”.

“Did not!” he giggles. “Ohh you did. It was a stinky one. Saw it on the thermal scanners” Grid joins in. “Was gonna report a chemical attack. Whoooooo”. Gar finally settles on a channel and Konn’r is instantly enraptured. “Ohhh Mickey Mouse! Mickey Mouse! Can we watch this Uncle Gar? Please?”

“Hmmm...I don’t know…”.

Of course he did. He’d gone to this channel on purpose after all knowing that it was Kon’s favorite. “Plllllllleasssssse?” 

He looks up at his uncle, quivering his lip out and starring with wide open eyes. “Ohh no” Gar teases, leaning back as if physically hit. “Not the Tamaranean pout...yeah haha..was just messing with you little buddy. Let’s watch Mickey Mouse”. 

“Yay! Can I have a chocolate milk while we watch?”

“Hmm...what do you think Grid?” the green team leader asks. “It is a boy’s night in. Should we give him a chocolate milk and hide it from his mama?”

“What are bros for? Think fast”. 

Konn’r turns his eyes away from the television screen for a second, knowing that this was always a fun thing to watch as well. “Gotcha G”. Beast Boy jumps up into the air and changes into an armadillo mid fall, just as the inbuilt tech guru shoots a bottle of chocolate milk out of the fridge. 

It rockets into beast boy, who grabs it in his little paws before rolling up into a ball, protecting the bottle and himself as he falls to the floor and bounces back up into the air a few times before rolling in front of the boy’s feet.    
  
He opens up and hands the bottle to the giggling boy who never tired of their juvenile shows for his entertainment. “Thanks Uncle Garfield. Thanks Uncle Grid”.

“No problem little buddy. Now, what episode is this? Ohh hold up, lemme pull up the tv guide...ahh, there. A good one. Alright, alright. I can hang”. Just like that, a holographic version of the former Cyborg appears and sits down on the couch on the free side of the child while Gar pops up and resumes his own position.

Konn’r was lost in the magical word of Mickey Mouse now though, and all he could do was absentmindedly open his bottle of chocolate milk and drink. The trio continue to watch, laughing and enjoying the innocent entertainment when a question occurs to Konn’r, one of immediate importance to him. 

“When’s mommy coming home?”

He couldn’t hide the nervousness that crept into his voice, nor the worry about if she was okay. He always worried, for all of them naturally, his beloved aunts and uncles, but his mother was always a special concern above all others.

Before either of the men could comfort him a voice calls out from behind them, perking the little boy’s spirits and worrying the other two. “Soon enough to see you two giving my baby sugar before bed time”.

Konn’r turns on the couch and looks at the rear of their living room where Komand’r, Terra and Raina, all returned from their patrol, were standing. “Mama!” He rockets off of the couch and straight into his mother’s arms, the woman moving into the air herself with the force of her joy to catch the Tamaranian/kryptonian child in her arms. 

He packed a wallop, even now, but so did his mother, and she was always eager for one of his hugs. “Mommy! Uncle Gar and Uncle Grid were playing hide and seek with me, and then we watched Mickey Mouse and I had a chocolate milk and…”.

“And you have a sugar overload now, yes I can see that Konn’r she laughs while casting a slight glare over at Garfield who had caught the bottle in mid air as Kon abandoned it. He looks at it and slowly lowers it over the edge of the couch, hiding it from her view. Grid however, just vanishes, leaving the green man to face the women, well rather woman, alone.

Blackfire was in an excellent mood though, and she didn’t feel like chastising her friend and leader for being kind to her son. “Thank you for watching him Garfield” she calls out, nuzzling her son’s nose and making him giggle. 

“It was nothing. He’s a real riot”.

The young man jumps over the back of the couch and smiles, moving towards the trio. “How’d patrol go? Anything of note?”

“Other than a few kids shooting cans with a pistol they found? Nyet”.

“Yikes mama. Get the pistol away from them?”

“Da!” Terra calls out, riffling through the fridge and retrieving a can of coke, the blonde having developed quite the taste for consumer goods. She belches loudly after opening the can and sipping deeply, drawing a reproachful glare from Raina.

“Raina took it out of her hands with her powers, and I smashed it with a rock. Simply as...how do you say again?”

“Pie. Simple as pie I believe” Komand’r says, watching as a sugar crash overtakes Konn’r. “Ohh my little bumgorf is sleepy. I better put him to bed. Say goodnight to your family little one”. Konn’r lays his head against his mother’s shoulder and weakly brings his hand up to wave. “Night night. Love you”.

“We love you too” a chorus responds back, each member of his family chuckling as Blackfire floats away down the hall, bringing the boy to his room to lay down.

“Well...that is all for the night da? I am tired”.

“You are released from duty comrade Terra” Raina supplies. The bond nods in a faux obeisant way, teasing the grey skinned with before moving off down the hall herself, waving her robotic arm that Luthor had designed for her. Soon it was Raina and Garfield alone though Grid was also there.

‘Technically he’s here all the time but...well’.

He smiles at Raina and shrugs, working out a sore spot in his neck. “Well, anyways, better go get some sleep Raina. Never know what tomorrow may hol…”.

He’s stopped by her hand on his wrist, and he turns just in time for her to move up towards him to press her lips against his and her arms around his shoulders. A light flickers in the distance, close to cracking and shattering as they did in the old days. Raina had gotten much better at controlling her emotions, though she was always rather somber and stoic in appearance.

He kisses her back for all she’s worth and after a few seconds they separate for air. She smiles, lightly, and kisses his lips softly. “Running away from your girlfriend? I frighten you that much?”

“Ohh yeah, completely” he teases, his lie giving way in the face of how he touches her. “Perhaps you should take your...mama...away for some private time?” He winces at that but laughs anyways, scooping the surprised russian up in his arms to carry her bridal style. “Goodnight” Grid calls out, huffing as he was “left out”.

“Goodnight comrade Grid”.

“Night chrome dome”.

“Why did you wince before?” she asks, caressing his cheek. “Ohh when you called yourself my mama” he explains. “Has a different connotation when you say it Rae”.

“Your language is annoying”.

“Yeah. I know”.

“So are you”.

“I know that too” he laughs. 

She smiles and kisses his jawline. “But I love you anyways” she teases. “Roses are red, so is the state, let us be comrades because I think you are great”. She stops her kissing at that moment to look at him askance, unsure of what to make of his strange line.

“That was awful”.

“Come on, you loved it”.

“Nyet”.

“Not even a little?”

She seems to think over that and comes up with an answer just as Garfield gets to the door of their room and makes it open by pressing the panel on the wall with his elbow.

“Well...da. A little”.

Those were her last words before she lets an uncharacteristic giggle escape her lips, just before the door closed. She was grateful that nobody heard such a sound from her. Well, except one person. One person heard everything. Grid.

‘Booyah...saving that for a little teasing in the morning’.

**_The Church of St. Dumas_ **

“Excellent Jason. As usual, excellent work”.

The young man was sweating and sitting on one of the extra pews that existed down here simply for the purpose of their training. Jason Blood by comparison, had not a drop of sweat on him. “Thanks”.

“If I may ask, you seem distracted. Is something going on that I’m not aware of yet?”

The man sheathes his sword and places it upon the holder at the wall, turning back to grasp a bottle of water in his hand to take a sip before tossing an unopened one to his protege. Jason catches it with practiced ease and shakes his head no. “No sir”.

He was hunched over the seat, breathing deeply. Their bouts had gotten more and more intense and this one lasted over an hour. Everytime he knocked the priest to the ground he got right back up again, refusing to stop until Jason could barely remain upright.

It was then that Blood stopped, and though Jason couldn’t see it, the man was pleased. Very pleased. ‘He’s come so far. All this training...it’s paid off. He’s ready. Soon though. Soon’ he reminds himself, knowing that the time for Azrael to roam the streets was not yet upon them. 

“May I remind you that lying is a sin?” the man asks, causing Jason to smirk. “Aside from that? You’re awful at it. Perhaps chose a sin that you’re better at if you must have a vice”.

“I’ll try and remember that Father” the young man jokes before deciding to confide in the man. “I...well...I’m going to ask Jenny to marry me”.

“Ahh...indeed. A very nerve wracking time in any man’s life. Is it safe to assume that she’ll say yes?”

“I...I really don’t know” he admits, clueing the priest in on the real reason for his trepidation. He leans back on an abandoned podium and studies the boy, trying to trace out the facts behind his eyes. “Do you love her? Answer me truthfully”.

“Yes. I do..”.

“I sense a but at the end of that sentence”.

Jason nods in response. “Yeah...I guess you do”. Abruptly he stands and walks over to a crucifix hanging upon the wall, seeking wisdom from the lord. Christ was strangely silent at that moment, though he knows that that was when God most spoke to man. “I...I also love someone else”.

“Jason...you haven’t been seeing another girl behind Jenny’s back have you?”

Father Blood was scandalized by the thought, and not just because of it being so morally wrong, but also because such an act would be down by the boy he watched grow into a man before him. ‘A warrior of the lord does not do such things’.

_ “You’d be surprised what sins can be committed by a young lad, for bountiful curves and warm bed have been known to drive them mad”. _

He ignores the dark chucklings and rhymes of the demon within him just in time to hear Jason’s response. “No, no of course not. I’d never do something like that” he defends himself and the priest believes him. Jason goes on, having more to say. “No. Well, the thing is...she’s...gone…”.

“Ahh..Barbara”.

“Yeah”.

He turns back to the cross and lays his sorrows out for the priest as well as his god. “I see her every night in my dreams. I’m reminded of how I failed. Every, single, night. I...I have other dreams too. What it would’ve been like to be with her now, after all that time. How she might have changed...I don’t know. It’s stupid. She’s gone”.

_ “Ohhh and now we see the result of your dark folly, for the anguish it has caused has given me reason to be jolly. Gone she is not, through she would’ve went somewhere hot. No, she is still aboard this plain, her purpose in life to cause pain”. _

“It’s not stupid Jason” Blood comforts while placing a hand on the man’s shoulder. “We have all lost someone we loved deeply, and it is never stupid to wish that they were here with us and indee to imagine how to would be if they were. Never feel that is a stupid emotion or thought Jason”.

He had to ignore the ramblings of Etrigan, lest they drive him mad in grief and regret. 

“But we must move on. We aren’t meant to stand still. God did not make this kingdom for us simply to stay put. We must go forward to our ultimate destinies, and perhaps, perhaps Jenny Cobblepot is part of yours”.

“I’d have to tell her about...this”.

“Do you think she can be trusted?” Jason asks, wanting Jason to seriously consider that. Before too long he says “yes. She can”.

“Then I do not see a risk, though be careful. Defend her Jason. The knowledge, if and when you decide to tell her of your divine mission as Azrael, will put her in danger should your identit…”.

“I know Father” Jason says, stopping the man in the middle of imparting his lesson. He smiles and shrugs. “This isn’t exactly my first time wearing a mask”.

“Ahh, yes. I keep forgetting”.

He didn’t. Couldn’t, but it was best for the boy to believe he did. A comfort to his mind undoubtedly. “Does your family know of your plans?”

“No. No they don’t”.

“Ohh”.

Jason catches the tone of the man’s voice. “Do you think I should tell them first?”

“Well, they’re going to have to know at least on the day of the wedding but I would suggest telling them before that yes” he laughs. Jason smiles, though it falls away quickly enough. “Guess I’m gonna have to”.

“One day Jason, one day, you will look back upon this and understand exactly why your father, mother and uncle and aunt decided what they did my boy. You’ll be a father one day yourself and then? Then you’ll know”.

“Thank you Father”.

“Don’t thank me Jason” he says, drinking once more from his bottle of water. “Go home...your real home, Wayne Manor, and tell them. Ensure that they are prepared for the news. And then? Plan on making it a very special night for the future Mrs. Wayne”.

Jason was already moving towards the stairs, having wiped himself off with a towel a bit. “I will father. I’m going to propose at the Iceberg Lounge. Already talked to her father about it at least”.

  
“Ahh, finally, a wise move from you boy. Very wise. I’m assuming that he has assented to give you his daughter if you’re planning on going through with a proposal?”

“He did. He’s...excited I guess to have me marry her? I’m not exactly sure why” Jason begins, leaning against the stone wall. “Mr. Cobblepot is...well, I don’t want to be a jerk but he’s a little odd. Seems to think that the Waynes and Cobblepots coming together like that after centuries is a sign of how things are changing”.

“What makes you think that’s so odd?” Jason Blood asks curiously.

“I don’t really know. Not in a bad way. It’s just that he seems really vested in it. He likes coming over to talk to Bruce even though we don’t really talk much anymore”.

“Maybe he’s just getting to know his son in law’s family a bit better. Not everything has a nefarious purpose behind it Jason”.

The man holds his hands up in agreement. “Ohh I know. He’s clean. In fact, he kind of...well, he works for Batman really. A street informer. He wasn’t always so squeaky clean but he was never a bad guy really either. He’s got his hand on the pulse of organized crime so...he’s useful. He’s also watched like a hawk because of it. Not nefarious no, but this is Gotham. Can never be too careful in at least double checking.

“How true. How very true”.

“Anyways, I really gotta get going. Goodnight Father”.

With that he turns and moves up the stairs and into the church, hopefully going to Wayne Manor to share the news with his family. He most likely was. Jason took his advice most of the time. After all.

  
He trusted him.

**_Abandoned Warehouse, East Gotham_ **

She was standing on the rusted catwalk that ran over the top of the warehouse, allowing her to look down and survey her surroundings. All she could see was the past though. All along the cement floor, phantoms of her past memories come over her.

This was the warehouse where she defended Jason and broke the collar bone of a thug that tried to kill him. This is where Batman reprimanded her for defending her brother in arms. The one she loved.

‘This is where you learned that his way doesn’t work’.

“Losing yourself in thoughts Huntress?”

Barbara turns and sees Shiva standing behind her, though her training had already ensure that she would hear the older woman walking up. “I suppose so Shiva. Tell me, were you successful?”

“I was, though you should know that I wouldn’t have returned to you if I wasn’t” the woman teases with a smirk. “Of course not, but still, I had to ask” Barbara retorts, a smile on her own face. She was watching the woman like a hawk, expecting treachery to come from anywhere and at any time, she still liked the woman who’d taught her so much despite this fact.

“I have. A few recruits. Nothing spectacular. A few gangs have popped up in the city. Nothing in the way of a massive organized structure” Shiva explains. Barbara frowns at this, having found Gotham City to be very different from the one she left. Clean streets, safe alleys, police everywhere. It was hard for her to fathom.

She had been banking on things essentially being the same, which would make her job all the more easier. She had to refocus though. If things weren’t as she wanted them, she would soon make them so. She had a blank check to cash after all.

“Good. It’s a start. As for the other items?”

  
Shiva turns and reaches into her pack, removing a helmet like piece of armor and throwing it over to the younger girl. “Your costume is complete Huntress” she teases as Barbara looks over the item. It would fully cover her face and identity, something she wanted to preserve for as long as possible. It had two pointed pieces that stretched over the top of the helmet, mimicking Bruce’s bat ears but swooping out to the side more. It was a dark purple in color as well, a dark calming shade that would be the last thing many of her targets would see.

“And the rest of my suit is ready as well?” she asks, turning the armor this way and that in her hands. “Yes Barbara. As well as your two modified crossbows and all the other goodies you wanted”.

“Good” she says, making to descend down the stairs. “Let’s go hunting”.


	4. Chapter 4

**_East Gotham_ **

“Alright...which one of you fucking mooks brought us all the way to the ass end of Gotham for this little sit down?”

Don Alberto Guidardo sat down at the proffered chair and cast a look around at the very few other men, and one woman, to have a big enough crew to be considered a “crime family”. He himself was all that was left of the once vibrant and strong Falcone and Mandragora families, having been a foot solider before Mandragora was killed and the siege of Gotham.

  
Despite his finely pressed suit and his pretensions of wealth, his so called “family” numbered no more than twenty guys who fought for the scraps that fell down to them in the Narrows. A few businesses paid protection fees and they made a bit of cash selling dope, but other than that? They were boxed in, and losing more every day.

He looks across the table at the mass of flesh that was Rupert Thorne, an old man who still had delusions of grandeur. He’d always been small time, even in the days when Carmine Falcone and Franco Bertinelli ruled the city. When the two of them fell, and then Mandragora he’d expected to walk right into that position. 

It didn’t work. 

Nobody respected him aside from the few lackeys he had that he paid off enough to buy their “loyalty”. Alberto didn’t see him as a threat. The room was filled with has beens and never beens, and it didn’t provoke much optimism for whatever this was.

“It wasn’t me” Thorn says, glaring at Alberto. “I guessed that only a dumb guinea would possibly suggest a sit down like this in broad daylight”.

“Hey, it wasn’t me asshole, but tell me, would you rather do it at night where the freaking bats can get us?”

“The League can get us just as easily her….”.

Alberto slams his fist down on the table. “The League is off planet our out of the fucking country most of the time. Hell, they are now. I know this because I, unlike you you fat piece of shit, actually do….”.

He stops, trying to think of the word and snapping his fingers for one of his men to supply it for him. “Umm...reconnaissance?” one of his lackeys says, causing the man to smile and nod, pointing at him happily.

“This guy gets it. Yeah. I do reconnaissance” he says, self assuredly. No matter what, even with all his pretensions to being amongst the old crust of Gotham City criminal enterprises, he was still just an uncouth street soldier. 

Thorne was no impressed, neither was the third member at that table who had remained quiet throughout the whole meeting so far. She frightened them if they were being honest, though honesty was something that was so far out of the realm of either of their experiences that they probably didn’t know what it really meant.

She was dressed nicely, a form fitting blue dress that flowed out with the wind and was still rather baggy on her emaciated frame. Her skin was pallid, lacking in color and almost death. The only thing that gave away the fact that she was alive was the rhythmic inhales and exhales of her chest.

She wasn’t what drew attention though. Instead, the doll, dressed in a classy three piece suit with a grey fedora perched upon its wooden head was what instantly pulled everyone in. The woman manipulated the doll through the holl in its back, and forced it to turn its gaze over the entirety of the room.

“So, finally noticed me eh?”

“Yeah, hard not to notice..dummy”.

That seemed to infuriate the doll, though the woman gave no indication that she even heard it. Instead she continued to look ahead, dead eyes unseeing of anything else that they could pinpoint. “Who are you going a dummy?”

He looks around exaggeratedly, drawing some laughter from the assembled foot soldiers. “I see a lot of ‘em here, but it seems you was talkin’ ta me”.

“And just who are you?” Alberto asks, looking at the girl and trying to draw her attention as he leans onto the table. When she doesn’t say anything he begins to wave his hand back and forth. “Hello? Anyone in there?”

A shot goes off and whizzes past the mob bosses’ head, causing him to duck in fear. When he turns back he sees that the dummy was now holding a snub nose pistol. The pistol was smoking, and Alberto was partly enraged, and partly horrified. 

“Don’t talk to the dame? Ya hear? She’s only gonna talk to me”.

Alberto and Thorne could see the woman’s throat moving as she manipulates her vocal cord, proving that she indeed was the one manipulating the dummy. It was clear now that the woman, whoever she was, was one of Gotham city’s long list of loons.

“Alright. Whatever. Who the hell are you then?”

They were going to play along. After all, if the dummy was talking then maybe they could get answers. Slowly the wooden toy lowers the pistol and his mouth clacks up and down, simulating speech. “Scarface is the name, and this is my girl. Shauna is her name. Again, don’t talk to her”.

“Alright...shit. Fucking weirdass bull”.

“You’re right that this is weird” Scarface says, showcasing that he indeed had a scar that ran parallel to his nose across his right cheek. “As for the inevitable question you’re gonna ask, it wasn’t us that set up this little shindig either. We’re too busy in Hell’s Honeypot”.

A goon from the side, one of Thorne’s, chuckles. “Wonder what it is? Dummies? Ahahah”.

He doesn’t get a chance to get a good laugh out as Shauna, holding Scarface, stands up abruptly, and the doll raises his hand, unloading the rest of the pistol’s ammo into the man’s chest. He is struck harshly by the first shot and forced back before the others hit him as well. He’s dead before he can even crash into the shipping crate behind him, and his death sparks all of the others into raising their own weapons, though not necessarily at Scarface and his Ventriloquist.

“Alright, which one of you motherfuckers set this all up?” Alberto shouts, brandishing his own nine millimeter. Thorne was standing as well, but he was relying on his men to protect him instead of his own weapons. He himself was slowly creeping away towards the exit, wanting to get out of this with his life intact.

Nobody answers, not before a voice from above them in the rafters did.

“None of you”.

They all turn to she the shadowy figure reveal herself, leaning as she did against the steel railing while brandishing a crossbow in her hand. None of them knew who she was, and she wasn’t instantly recognizable as a member of the Justice League.

Her facial features were covered by a full mask, eye slits the only thing that was cut out from the rest of it. Pointy steel ears jutted out to the side and then upwards, making them think of the bat family before remembering that none of them operated during the day.

Her body was also similarly covered in places by purple painted armor, especially around her arms, elbow, knees and lower legs. The rest was a simple one piece black suit, with a white stripe up the middle. 

“Alright, now we’re getting somewhere” Alberto says while straightening out his jacket and placing his pistol back in his holster. This seemingly calms some of his men down, diverting their aim away from the other gang leaders and onto the mysterious figure up on the cat walk.

“Who the hell are you?” Scarface calls out. 

“Doesn’t matter. What does matter is you now work for me” she calls back enigmatically. “Look at you. Pathetic. Hiding in the darkness. True, it’s where scum like you belongs, but...well, I remember a day when criminals at least had balls”.

She maintains her position, watching out of the corner of her eyes at the edge of her line of sight while her compatriots take their positions. “And what makes you think we’d just work for you?” Alberto chuckles. “What? You call us all here, get us to sit down, step out into the light and we all just bow down before you? Like cheap fucking hoods?”

The laughter spread about the gangs of men who all enjoyed a throwback to the old days when the mob families had power here. The woman herself though, was less entertained. “Ohh, I wasn’t talking to you Alberto” she says blankly. “Or you Thorne. No. You’re old trash. Couldn’t even hold onto penny and dime rackets. No. No. I just need your men. So here’s the deal. You’re going to hand them over to me and then? You can leave Gotham alive”.

The ultimatum draws nothing but shocked silence from the men below, for exactly one second until they devolve into laughter once again. “AHAHAHAHAHAH! Can you believe this broad?” Alberto asks Thorne, forgetting their rivalry to elbow the man beside him lightly. “You giving up your men Rupe?”

“Yes right away” the fat man jokes, his laughter shaking the rolls of his fat.

Scarface remained quiet though, not joining in with the laughter of his men as the woman stares down at them. “So, you’re turning down my offer? Willing to die for the little empires you’ve carved out of the dirt?”

That set Alberto and Thorne off, not liking the fact that their criminal enterprises size was being thrown back in their faces. Alberto draws his pistol again, making a fatal mistake in challenging the woman above him by aiming it at her. 

“Listen here bitch…”.

He didn’t get three seconds in before she jumps down, launching herself out into the darkness above with the ease of an acrobat. He couldn’t see her. For a moment.

He saw, and felt what happened next. 

A crossbow bolt rockets out of the darkness and slams into his wrist, breaking and shattering the bones while it pierces the skin. The bolt comes in clean and is stopped by the shaft, which has designed to have little hooks extend to keep it in place. Regardless though, the purpose of the weapon was served and Alberto drops his pistol to the ground, gripping his wounded hand and trying to staunch the blood flow. It wasn’t working, and he didn’t have much time regardless.

Huntress now slams down on him from above, bringing him to the floor below her. She recovers quickly, just in time stand up and slam her boot down on his chest. Guns are focused on her now, all of them, as she draws back the string of her crossbow and notches another arrow.

Alberto grasps her foot in his hand, struggling to breath as she increases the pressure. The goons around her in a state of shock, not knowing what to do. Especially Alberto’s men.

“So, you’re probably thinking that this is the part where I offer you a chance to reconsider, or go on some grandiose speech about our little standoff and what not right?”

“I would assume we’re at that position yes” Thorne says with a wide smile. “I hope you’re not expecting us to negotiate for this little pest’s life. If so, you’re going to be sadly mistaken. If he dies, well...more for us”.

Everyone exchanges a glance on that fact, though Alberto’s men were a little worried. They’d have to curry favor amongst the two remaining gangs or leave Gotham entirely if they were out of a job.

Huntress glares down at Alberto, who for the first time seems to have an open, unrestricted fear in his eyes as he stares down the point of her crossbow. “Don’t worry” she calls out. “I’m not”.

She pulls the trigger and releases the bolt, allowing it to slam right into the man’s eye, destroying the fleshy orb and continuing on into his brain. He was dead within seconds. His men however, were still alive, and all too ready to kill the woman who’d taken out their boss. 

Before they could open fire though, another shape moves through them which follows itself up with a sharp blade that glints in the ambient light of the room. The new girl, dressed in an alternating pattern of black and orange across her body, slices through the arm of one of the men, making him drop his gun and drawing a harsh reprimand from Huntress.

“Ravage, the goons. Alive”.

Her words were simple, and Rose grimaces at having had them be delivered to her so harshly. The woman’s orders were tantamount to law though, seeing as she was to lead the league in Gotham. Ravager works on dispatching them less lethally, though many would still be sporting massive cuts in the morning.    
  
Scarface’s men were about to open fire before a massive, hulking figure burst out of one of the boxes within the building. They don’t have any time to turn their weapons upon this new threat as he picks the nearest one up in a bear hug and uses his body as a battering ram for the rest.

He throws them to the side with ease, injuring them left and right though in a much more professional manner than Ravager had started out with. Shiva was nowhere to be seen, but Huntress didn’t expect her to be. She was, after all, Ras’ second in command. She would only participate if she was sure that her help was required to win. 

In Barbara’s view, it was best if she wasn’t needed until the final act at all. 

The sound of fighting abates, and soon? All of the armed thugs are down, moaning through their wounds upon the floor. Huntress steps away from the dead body of the Italian mob boss, and completely passes the cowering Rupert Thorne who couldn’t stop shaking in his fear. 

Huntress was concerned with the only one who didn’t seem afraid, the one of the three who had stood her ground. “You...Scarface was it?”

The dummy responds on her behalf.

“Who wants to know?”

“Huntress” she says simply, not giving anything more than that as she looks around vacantly, drawing the Ventriloquist’s attention to the fact that she, and thus Scarface, were all alone now. “And you work for me?”

“Hmm...what’s in it for me thought?”

“I don’t really care” the woman says, mimicking Ras by crossing her arms behind her back and moving around the puppeteer. “Take what you want after we’re down. This isn’t a long term arrangement”.

“Well what am I supposed to do in the here and now?”

“Simply put? Whatever I tell you to do” she explains. “I have need of your men, and also the men of the now deceased Alberto Guidardo. In fact, every man in this room is going to be working for me, though I need someone to act as my proxy”.

  
“What the hell is a uhh….uhh…”.

“Proxy” Barbara repeats irritatedly. “A go between. A bag man in your terms”.

“Ahh so you want me to be your patsy? And why the hell would I agree to that?” Scarface asks, his mouth moving rapidly while holding onto the glued cigar between his lips. The woman’s arms move in tandem to further communicate the fact that she was also irritated and angry.

“Because...you like living don’t you? Look how easily me and my team took out your little gang of misfits. It’s better to work for us, trust me. Especially with what’s going to happen to Gotham”.

“And what’s gonna happen to the old gal that ain’t happened already?” the dummy asks. “In case you haven’t noticed? We’ve been invaded, eaten, shot at, blown up and we’re still here. We’ll survive you nutcases too. You wont even get past the bat....”.

His words are halted as Huntress moves the bolt directly onto the puppet’s wooden forehead. Her whole demeanor had changed, and her body seemed to be shaking. Ravager seemed worried, having pulled up her mask to reveal her face, one eye of which was covered in a eye patch. “Huntress…”.

“SHUT UP!” she screams, turning to silence the one true friend she’d gained in the league over the years. Rose was angered but listened to the woman’s order, backing off and sheathing her sword on her back.

She turns back to the dummy, which was looking up at her slack jawed. “Don’t. Fucking. Talk to me...about the bat”. She punctuates her words by gently moving the crossbow across his forehead, wanting to ensure that her point was made. It leaves a scratch across the wood and makes the dummy recoil in pain, though it certainly wasn’t really his reaction, merely the reaction that Shauna thought he should have.

“I’ll handle the bat. I know his every trick and by the end of all this? He’ll be dead. All of them...most of them will be”.

She knew that she only really wanted Bruce and Harleen dead. She’d kill Dinah and Vic if they got in the way, but she didn’t really want to kill them. The kids would all naturally be safe and Jason...Jason would be too.

“Alright...alright...I get it, you’re serious about all this but...why? Why burn it down?”

“To save it” she says. “To make the world realize that it’s lost its way. Set it all right. It’s just going to happen again...and again...and again”.

At this point she was mumbling to herself, making Shauna and Scarface share a look that communicates their confusion to one another. Eventually Barbara focuses again and her thoughts become more clear. “When it’s all done? Maybe you’ll have something. If you don’t join us though, you’re definitely going to be dead. Just like the rest of them here. You’ll have nothing then”.

She wasn’t waiting any longer

She needed an answer and she needed it now. She’d have it too.

She turns back and points the crossbow directly at Shauna, the one whose death really affected Scarface’s continued existence. “Well...what’s your answer?”

Scarface was a good tactician, and he was also an honest one, a rare combination in a mob boss. He knew when he was beat and when playing along was in his best interests. “Alright, alright...you got yourself two patsies”.

The crossbow is lowered and Huntress says only one word to Scarface. “Good”. With that she begins walking towards the exit, leaving Bronze Tiger to finish the job of instructing their new hired help with what they were to do. The black man was eager, and he cracks his knuckles while approaching the Ventriloquist. 

Scarface gulps audibly courtesy of Shauna, though that only goads the man on. Ravager however, was fighting to catch up to Huntress. “Huntress, wait!”

The woman responds to her friend’s call and stops, turning to look her over. “What?”

“You shouldn’t go out alone” Ravager defends firmly. “You’re too impulsive. You’re going to cost us this whole operation if you shoot off now. Even this was risky. We should’ve waited”.

“We do as I say Ravager”.

That was enough to silence the dissent. It always was. In the field, now? Barbara was acting as an extension of Ras, and was thus only answerable to him. Her word was that of their leader, and only he had the authority to question her or remove her.

Huntress seems to remember something else, and she raises her bow to shoot Rupert Thorne, who had only now just started to move away, through the throat. The man brings his hands up to staunch the bleeding and remove the bolt, achieving the latter but only assisting the first in doing so. 

Slowly the fat man falls to the ground, his blood forming a massive puddle that spreads ever outwards as he does. “Ravager?”

The woman’s question drew the blonde’s gaze away from the dying man. “Do not question me again”. With that she leaves, heading off to wherever she would make her home in this city. Rose was worried, and for more than one reason.

Barbara had spared her life that day, when her own father had forsaken her. She’d then taken her under her wing. She initially resisted at first, not wanting to admit that she’d failed and now had to rely on her charity, but after a while…...a friendship had been struck. And after more time?   
  


Well...it was more for Rose.

She looks down and shakes her head, happy that she could hide her glare behind the mask. ‘Jason Wayne...her only weakness’. She looked back to see that Huntress was gone, and she resented that she wasn’t going with her. She could sense the greatness coming off of her, see what she could become. 

‘She must be freed of all...distractions’.

With that, Rose herself walks off into the night, having made her own arrangements. The League would get in contact with her if they needed her. They always did.

They were everywhere in Gotham now.

**_Wayne Manor Training Room_ **

Harleen brings her leg up to kick at the speed bag, her timing and strength impeccable as usual. The bag was hit, and hit hard. So hard it goes back up into the air and almost swings off of the steel loop that held it there. However, something went wrong, and she felt a pop in her hip that gave way. She places her foot back down and fights through the pain that was enveloping her whole body, moving just in time to avoid the trajectory of the returning bag, letting it swing out to hit nothing but air.

“Ow...ow...ow...ow” she says, hopping up and down which in hindsight wasn’t that good of an idea as it only caused more pain. She stops, taking a deep breath to try and calm herself down. ‘Come on Harleen...just a….ow’. 

She feels it though.

Someone was behind her. Someone large and menacing. With quick action she turns, grasps the about the shoulders and flips them onto the mat, her attack having come so quick that the figure was overtaken, especially after she swept their leg out from under them. 

“Ooof” she hears as the body makes contact, though she doesn’t let up on her assault. Instead she reaches out to pin their wrists and use her weight to keep them down. It’s only when she turns to look at the man’s face that she realizes she made a mistake.

There was Bruce, smiling up at her.

“Ohh god Bruce...puddin” she says, releasing his wrists and sighing, shaking her head in disappointment. Bruce just smiled back up at her, rubbing her back. “I just wanted to let you know I picked up dinner...your favorite”.

“General Tso’s chicken?” she asks while laying her head on her husband’s chest. “Uhhm” he murrs back, enjoying this time spent together. “Do you do this to everyone who walks up behind you?”

“Sorry sweetie...as old as I’m getting your training never goes away”.

“You’re not old”.

“Please...you didn’t hear me hurt myself throwing a kick? Damn near broke my hip. Definition of an old woman” she teases back, listening to the sound of his heartbeat as they continue to lay on the matt. “Alright well...I’m old too then”.

  
She moves up to look at him again, noticing something that intrigues her. She turns his head and sees the grey working into the forefront above his ears. She smiles wide. “You stopped coloring your hair”.

“Well...you told me too. Why? Should I start again?”

“Not at all puddin’” she teases, leaning in to kiss his neck and nibble on his earlobe as she moves upward. “Like I said. I like it. Distinguished Bruce Wayne”. His hand moves to her hip, gently rubbing it through the sweat pants she wore to train. “You okay?”

“Yeah”.

“You were really going at that bag, more so than usual. Is something on your mind?” he asks, getting right to the heart of the matter as he sits up, keeping her within his grasp so she straddles his waist, lithely wrapping her own legs about him as he does so. 

They remained looking into each other’s eyes in this upright position, and she places her hands on his shoulder to steady herself. “I was at the court the other day...when they released Dick”.

“Ahh...I knew that was bothering you”.

“It is…” she admits, not knowing what else to say. “It’s been bothering me too. I mean...I don’t know what to think about it, or what to do. We’re so close to the end of this and well, it just looks like we’re going to have to trust that all of your work in rehabilitation did the trick” he soothes, running his fingers through her blonde locks.

“Hmm...amazing how you still don’t have grey hair” he says. Harleen rolls her eyes. “Bruce, it’s different for a woman” she explains, nuzzling his nose. “You guys just think of old cat ladies when you see grey hair”.

He smiles, one of those smiles that seemed to always premeditated when he’d unknowingly say something that turned his wife to mush. It had happened all throughout their marriage, and she just had a gut feeling it would happen again.    
  


He reaches up and brushes a stray lock that had somehow fallen loose from the bun she kept her hair in while training behind her ear and continues to look deeply into her eyes. “I would only see the twelve years we’ve been together, four children we’ve had and the hundreds of nights that’s only made me love you more and more when looking at you Harley. Old and wrinkled as you might one day be, you’ll still be Harleen Wayne”.

She closes her eyes and nods, though that was for herself. ‘Yup...mushed again’.

She leans in and kisses him deeply, already forgetting about dinner as she wanted to skip right to dessert. Bruce was also getting into it, their soreness not inhibiting them at all as his hands move to her rear end, kneading it through the fabric, and his lips to her neck, gently suckling on her pulse point. 

“Ohh Bruce!” she coos out excitedly, pressing herself tighter to his body.

A cough from the doorway interrupts them, and both separate to see Dinah standing there against the frame, though someone else they hadn’t expected to see was also there. Jason was standing in the door frame next to his aunt, a blush on his cheeks at the two having caught them in such a compromising position.

“Hey lovebirds, no sex in the training room. The kids use this from time to time” the nanny chastises just as the two begin to disentangle from one another, though Harleen, having forgotten the pain in her hip for a moment, feels it return to her as soon as she is off her husband.

She winces in pain, sitting on the mat and rubbing her side.

“Sweetie!” she calls out with a smile regardless, ecstatic to see her son. “Hey mom” he says evenly back before looking at Bruce. “Dad”.

Bruce smiles back, knowing that whatever it was that brought Jason to the manor tonight would undoubtedly be important. “Hello Jason. How are you?”

“I’m fine. Thanks”. His gaze turns back to Harley. “Are you okay mom?”

“Yeah, yeah just...old people stuff”.

“Didn’t look like you were doing old people stuff” Dinah chimes in before looking down at her watch. “I’ll go get the kids and tell them that they’ve got dinner waiting for them downstairs. Ohh and Ivy and Harvey are coming over with their two gremlins too”.

Harley looks at Bruce who just remembered that he had invited them without telling her. “Sorry, it uhh...slipped my mind”. 

“Puddin’, never apologize for inviting my best friend over” she says, watching as he gets up and then offers her a hand to pull her back up himself. “I’m just glad you too get along so well. But anyways...come here and give mama a hug Jason!”.

The boy smiles good naturedly and moves across the room to where his mother in all but blood was, and wraps his arms around her, hugging her tight. “Ohhh it’s always so good to see you muffin! At least you’re eating well, though...it could be better. I want you to call more!” she whines. “We never know what’s going on. How’s Jenny?”

The questions are rattled off at a million miles a minute, something that always manages to break through the iciest of moods that any man in the batfamily could experience at any given moment. “Well umm..actually? That’s what I’m here about”.

Harleen’s face falls, and Bruce can’t help but feel worried as well. When he found out that Jason was dating Jenny Cobblepot, he’d taken it as a sign that Jason was moving on from the past and from Barbara. After a while though, he could detect that there was a difference in how his son looked at the girl during the times he’d see them together.

He was kind to her, gentle and loving, warm in his own way, but there was always a sadness in his eyes that gave away the fact he wanted to be looking at someone else in that moment. 

“Aww, sweetie...did you two break up? Please tell me no. She’s such a sweet girl and you two are great together”.

“No mom, no, we’re still together” he says, taking a deep breath to collect himself, though Bruce noticed that he didn’t seem exactly nervous. He could already see where this was going, and he saw Jason’s lack of nervousness as a sign.

“I wanted to come by and tell you guys a few days ago but...I was just very tired and well...I’m going to ask Jenny to marry me”. He seemed to be unchanged in emotion from before and after he spoke, though Harleen had done a complete one hundred and eighty in emotion. The smile was quickly plastered back onto her face and she grasps Jason in a tight hug.

“Ohh! That’s so freaking great! Ohh my god I love it! Excellent news Jason! Excellent! Ahhhh a new Mrs. Wayne to talk too!”

He hugs the ecstatic woman back and shrugs. “Well I haven’t asked her yet mom…”.

“So? She’s gonna say yes!” she claims happily. “The way she looks at you? It’s like you’re the only guy on Earth. Trust me. A mother knows when a girl loves their son. If she didn’t? I wouldn’t let ya see her”.

“Mom” he chastises.

“What? It’s true. Now...tell me, how ya gonna propose?”

Harleen was happy, and Bruce was happy that she was happy, but something about Jason’s demeanor was off. It was like...he wasn’t completely dedicated to this course of action. That disappointed him. Jason had changed since loosing the costume. He’d become withdrawn, and everything about him seemed to be hollow, going through the motions.

He was dedicated to something though, and Bruce could pick up on that through cursory views of where Jason went. He was at the church constantly, and judging from his physique he’d been continuing, and perhaps even intensifying the workout regiment he had as Robin.

He didn’t know what to make of it. Not right then.

‘Whatever he’s planning for his future, I have a feeling that in the long run it doesn’t include Jenny Cobblepot’. He hated this. Hated the fact that he was double guessing his son, but he couldn’t turn off being Batman the way he wanted.

He’d have to confront the boy on this. 

When they were alone and could speak more openly. Hopefully he hadn’t destroyed of their rapport all those years ago. ‘I’m still your father Jason. You can trust me’.

“Bruce, isn’t this great? We’re going to be in laws! And hopefully soon? We’ll have grandbabies!” she shouts out happily. Bruce smiles back at his wife, enjoying the look of utter horror on Jason’s face as his mother talks about children. “Woah, woah...umm...way too fast”.

“Pffft...it’ll happen. Trust me. Your dad and I made Martha and Mary before we got married. Trust me, once the ring goes on the finger those first few months are nothing but…”.

“Harleen, you’re scarring the boy” Bruce teases, moving up beside his wife and taking her waist in his arm. “I’m very happy to hear about this Jason. I’m assuming you already asked Oswald?”

“Yeah. He said yes”.

“Mmm..”

Bruce had to admit, at least to himself, that he was surprised the short man known as the Penguin hadn’t already rushed to him. Their families had developed a close friendship that only became even stronger after Jason and Jenny started dating. 

“This is so great! The girls are going to be excited too. They love Jenny! Are you staying for dinner sweetie? The whole family would like to know and they’re gonna find out. Better for you to tell them than me. Aunt Pam and Uncle Harvey are coming over tonight so you can tell them too”.

Jason didn’t have a say in the matter as Harleen had already moved off to go shower, not allowing him a chance to turn her down. Not that he would. Jason had a habit of listening to his mother.

He was left alone with Bruce, and neither of them knew what to say to one another, the gap of time and anger being too wide to mend it. Bruce opens his mouth to speak, wanting to say something in the ways of congratulations, but the younger man was already moving off, heading towards the kitchen.

“I’ll see you at dinner”.

He lets his words drop, knowing that there was no point in saying them anyways. Jason didn’t want to hear what he had to say, and he didn’t blame. Them. ‘How long are you going to make me pay for that Jason?’ he asks the boy who was no longer present. ‘I did it to protect you’.

In the end, that was what mattered the most. Protecting his son. He’d take his hatred if he had too. As long as he was safe and happy? He considered his mission a success.

**_The Olympus Diner_ **

“Here you go sir”.

“Hey thanks”.

The burger did look delicious, and Adriane hated that she wanted to eat into one for the fourth time that day. She reaches down and rubs her pregnant stomach, licking her lips before moving away, not wanting to lose herself and pick up the delectable burger off of the customer’s plate. 

She instead focuses on her five year old daughter and three year old son who were sitting in one of the booths, coloring as they waited for their parents shift to end. “Are you okay Harmonia? Are you hungry lamb?”

The little girl smiles up at her mother, an adorable look as she had just recently lost one of her front teeth. “No thanks mommy. I’m okay”. She hears the mumbling banter of her son, Aesop, named for her favorite story teller and smiles, leaning against the side of the booth to stroke her fingers through his auburn locks. “Are you enjoying watching your sister draw my second smaller lamb?”

“Yes mama”.

His vocabulary was still simple, and that worried her. The teachers said that he was a little behind, and every night she would read to him to try and get him to say more. Still, Aesop was a quiet child, one who very much loved to watch. She smiles down at her two children and her eyes widen as she feels a kick in her stomach. 

“Uhh oh...your little sister is stirring again” she coos out, making to get up and get back to work. “She’s chastising her mother for being lazy” she teases, causing her daughter to laugh. “You’re not lazy mommy”.

“Mama...not...lazy” Aesop sounds out, apparently running his tongue over the words, copying them and trying to discern their meaning. She leans down and kisses his forehead, knowing that he was trying and largely succeeding. The Amazonian general was just worrying when she shouldn’t be, and she had to remind herself of that.

An arm circles around her waist, and when she turns her head over her shoulder she sees Ares, a wide smile upon his face. “My wife”.

“Husband whom I am quite mad at for doing this to me”.

“Aww. Well...shall I make it up to you?” he asks lovingly, moving her so that she is positioned in the booth next to Aesop, who eagerly moves closer to his mother and rests his head on her arm, suckling his thumb. 

Adriane is about to retort when a delicious smell invades her nostril, and a burger is placed on the table in front of her with all of her favorite fixings. “Ares...I can’t...not again today” she says, not believing her own words. The baby begins to kick a little harder, apparently wanting a burger as well. ‘Again little one?’

“Aww but I made this especially for you. Everything that you like. Lettuce, tomato, cole slaw…” he says with a sly smile, holding off on mentioning what would undoubtedly be the major selling point of the burger. “Not to mention your favorite…”.

“Pickles!” Harmonia calls out while looking up from her drawing to laugh at her mother a bit. 

Adriane bites her lip and looks up at her husband, thankful beyond words. “If a customer comes…”.

“You will sit and continue to eat” he soothes, knowing that as it was getting a little later the customer flow would decrease to a trickle. Still, the diner was never without a customer. The Olympus was the best in the whole city, and it showed.

‘God of the spatula’ she thinks to herself, letting the man who still wore his greasy chef’s apron go on. “I’ll handle it dove”.

“Thank you” she says, kissing his cheek as he leaned over the table, moving onto the burger next. She opens her mouth and takes a bit, her eyes closing in near orgasmic bliss as the flavor hits the exact spot in her palette that needed to be hit. Their baby enjoyed it too as her kicking had stopped while her mother munched down on the delicious patty.

“Is it good?”

“Mmhmm”.

“Tell me I don’t make the best burgers in Gotham?” he jests.

“Daddy’s burgers are the best! But I like the chicken tenders more” Harmonia says absentmindedly while continuing her little doodle. Aesop meanwhile had seen the plate of food and moved forward a bit, pointing to it. “Mama...fre..fwench fly?” 

“Slow down and say it sweetie” she says, knowing he could get it if he just slowed down and sounded it out. Aesop understood and works it out slowly. “Mama...french...fry?” He punctuates his question by putting his hands out and opening and closing his fingers to make it clear he wanted something.    
  
She smiles and slides the plate over a bit, not minding one bit having to share her dinner, or rather second dinner, with her son that night. Then again, they all practically took out of one another’s plate all the time. Just something they did. 

Aesop reaches forward and takes a rather big one off of the plate, Ares having taken to making steak fries in place of the normal ones, and frowns as it bends in a floppy manner. With his other hand he reaches out and grabs it, straightening it while bringing the fry to his mouth and nibbling at the tip in a cute manner.

“Daddy...can I have a milkshake?” Harmonia asks from her seat. Adriane quickly fights to swallow her bite, shaking her head and making a noise to the negative. When it finally goes down she opens her mouth to speak. “Sweetie, it’s a school night. No sugar”.

“Mommy it’s friday”.

“Is it?” she asks, having lost track of time. She turns to Ares who nods. “All day Adriane”.

She groans and returns to her burger. “Okay sweetie. If I can stuff my face like a swine, I suppose it’s only fair you can have a milkshake”.

“Milkshake?”

“And a small one for our little boy over here” she adds. Ares nods. “Yes ma’am. Anything else?” At that moment the bell at the door rings, signalling that a customer had come in. Ares turns and sees an older couple entering the diner, and Adriane instantly gets up to take their order. Her husband wasn’t having it though, and he pushes her back down. 

“No. Sit. Eat. Relax”.

He reaches down to rub her belly lovingly, smiling at the woman as she blushes and places her own hand over his. “I love you”. He leans in and kisses her lips before she has time to answer, moving off as soon as they disconnect to go and help the customer.

She smiles dopiley after her husband, and returns to her meal, happy beyond words at how her life had turned out. The diner had been a hit! Perhaps too much of a hit. Over the past few years both had lost their edge a bit, and they knew that they simply weren’t in the shape they once had been.

Ares had developed, and she chuckled every time she thought of the former god of war in such a situation, a bit of a belly, though his arms and the rest of his body were still very strong. He did work out, but simply put? The only real exercise either of them put in on a day to day basis was chasing their children around the playground at the revamped Cobblepot park.

  
She herself had gained some weight, and when she looked in the mirror she almost felt like she saw her younger self glaring back at her for her lack of training. The general in her seethed, but the mother in her? Well, she was too busy working the diner, helping their kids with homework, folding socks and cleaning their apartment to worry about swordplay.

She, for the life of her, couldn’t figure out how she’d so easily fallen into the role of housewife, but she found that she loved it. She was annoyed by it of course. Little things. Ares had a habit of leaving his socks at the foot of the bed, and Harmonia always left the fridge open. Aesop was the cleanest and the only problem he posed now was that he was afraid of the toilet which made potty training harder.

These little problems, they quickly became tiny miracles to her.

“Welcome to the Olympus diner, may I take your order...ohh, one moment, Adriane?” Ares calls out. “Yes?”

“When is Danae and Thistria getting in to cover the night shift?”

She looks down at her watch and sees that it was only ten past eight. “They’ll be here at nine sweetie”.

“Okay. If you want, you and the kids can go home. I’ll handle things until they get here”.

“No Ares, we’ll wait” she calls out back to him. It was an unspoken rule that they came to work as a family, where Adriane would then take Harmonia to school and keep Aesop with her all day, and then go home as a family later on. 

She wasn’t going to change that schedule. No matter how her physical discipline may have fallen, her regimentation would never go away fully. She looks back down at her plate and notices that most of the french fries were gone, and the culprit was right beside her.

Aesop was munching down on them, not a care in the world as he looks out the window at the passing traffic that never ceased in Gotham. With a smile, Adriane puts it from her mind and returns to the plate, picking up a pickle and placing it in her mouth, enjoying the salty and sour goodness.

‘Well...I got the most important part of the meal’


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I double checked this for as many typos as I could. Let's hope that works. i am copy pasting this from a google docs I write in so that could be it too? I don't know. Anyways, a lot of you guys have been awful quiet. Is this good? Interesting? Entertaining? I'm missing the buzz lol. Anyways yeah, here's another chapter! Wow already to five. We'll be done with this one by early March most likely and then? Onto Gotham by Gaslight but was also wondering what you guys would think of a longer gender bent story? Not as long as this but maybe ten chapters or so with either Batman being Batwoman or Superman being Superwoman? What would you think? Or another hero maybe? Who knows. Just been mulling it over.

**_GCPD Headquarters_ **

“I’m not going to let this penedjo scare me into hiding like a rat!” Renee shouts out, not surprising the assembled officers of the department nor the heroes who’d also flocked there in the wake of the threat that had come to life.

“Renee…” Tatsu begins lightly, knowing that the situation was very volatile.

She was right, and her girlfriend could already tell what she was going to say, and she wasn’t having it. “No, no, I ain’t taking that shit from you too Katana”. She points her finger into the woman’s shoulder. “You of all people should know that I’m not some little China doll to be locked away in a glass case. We’ll find this guy and take him down, just like we always do”.

Batman takes this opportunity to step forward, which was also, apparently, unwelcome to the commissioner. “And don’t you even fucking think about it”.

His eyes narrow beneath the cowl, and Harleen could see that her husband was about to dig in just as much as the obstinate police commissioner was already. ‘Well...lets see who wins this little contest of wills’ she thinks to herself.

“We’re not thinking about it. We’re telling you”.

“Ahh that so?”

“Yes. That’s so. Professor Pyg, with all of our evidence so far, is nearly untraceable. He’s smart, resilient and is able to approach women in broad daylight before leading them away. He fits all the classic descriptors of a serial killer”.

“We’re dealing with Ted Bundy times ten right now” Harleen says. “The guy knows how to operate. The only difference between him and someone like Bundy is that he selects his victims much more rigorously, and considering how the bodies we find all have pieces lopped off, we can only assume that he’s got something bigger going on than just chopping up dames across the city”.

Batman doesn’t say anything but he definitely concurred with his wife’s expert opinion. He turns back to Montoya and tries to fix her with the patented bat glare. It doesn’t work though as she had been exposed to it too many times at this point and was practically immune to its effects.

“You fit his victims’ descriptions to a tee Montoya. You’re a hispanic woman in your late twenties to early thirties. Slim but lightly muscular build. Good shape”.

“Glad you’re checking out my shape pervert” she snaps back angrily. “But how about this? You’re wrong. Carmelita Rojas was a lo chubbier than me and he still sliced her up”.

“Her ears”.

“What?” she asks, turning back to the Question who was leaning against a desk across the room. “He only chopped off her ears. Her ears are what he wanted”.

“What the hell does that…”.

“He’s collecting certain body parts from a certain subgroup” the man goes on to say further. “I.e, hispanic women in their late twenties and early thirties, but the ones that have assumed imperfections or deformities in his opinion, he leaves alone. Small pieces were taken from ones that were overweight. More though, more pieces, arms, legs, they were taken from women who fit your body type to a tee”.

“Woah” Dinah says, standing next to her husband and shivering. “It’s creepy that you know all this. You’re not planning on cutting me up are you babydoll?”

Question turns to her and though his face was...well, blank, he was smiling at his wife. “Nope. I much prefer you in one piece and intact”.

“Good. Glad to hear it” she says, wiping a false bead of sweat from her forehead.

“Might have you stuffed though”.

“What?”

It was a comical scene to happen amidst such a serious discussion, and the assembled police officers couldn’t help but laugh. It was too humorous. The punchline, the set up, Dinah’s flabbergasted reaction and Question’s aloof coolness. 

The laughter finally settles down though, and the attention returns to Renee and the threat she found herself in. “So what you’re saying is that by playing the numbers, betting essentially, he’s going to keep more of me than the others?”

“That is exactly what I’m saying yes”.

This was Harleen’s turn to interject, having gone over the autopsy reports herself. Batwoman steps forward and places a hand on the commissioner’s shoulder, something she doesn’t immediately shrug off which was a comfort to the blonde woman.

“Montoya, he’s taken practically everything else from his victims. Skin, face, arms, ears, legs and eyes. The only thing he’s missing, that hasn’t been taken on any of his victims…”.

“Is their head and body”.

Batman’s voice was deep and intense, and it was at this point that people usually gave way in the face of his “superior judgement”. Renee had her own opinions about the infallibility of the Batman and his family though, and she wasn’t having it. 

She violently shrugs Batwoman off and advances on her husband angrily, hating how he doesn’t even react or respond to her rage. “Well then, looks like I’ll just have to be extra careful”.

“That wont work” Batman says cooly, refusing to back down. “Pyg is a master of disguise, blending in and clearly movement. He was able to put on the little macabre scene in front of the GCPD which hints at his MO changing”. 

“Which means he’s either desperate, or getting close enough to completing his mission that he feels he can take a risk” the hurt Batwoman supplies, hating that their relationship with the commissioner had deteriorated so much. “And we’re nowhere close to catching him, so it definitely isn’t the fact that he’s desperate”.

“That’s another thing” Renee shouts out, this time turning back to her fellow officers. “Why the hell are we relying on the bats to do our job huh? What the fuck is wrong with us that we aren’t on the street 24/7 tracking this guy down? Huh?”

The officers were in a cowed silence, and none of them really knew what to say. For one they felt that their commissioner’s accusation was unfair. They were doing all they could to bring the professor to justice. It was just a simple matter of fact that the Batman worked faster. “Ey, commish, we’re doing all we can” Bullock calls out. 

“No, you’re not. Not if these fucking capes are still doing all the work”. She turns and fixes them all with her gaze. “I want every cop out there, at all times. You’re on the clock, you’re looking for Pyg. Otherwise, turn in your fucking badge”.

Tatsu could see it.

  
Renee was unhinged. Afraid. She knew her woman, and she felt as if her heart was breaking at the anger she held towards the heroes of this city. Her own mind had gone over the revelation that Batman was Bruce Wayne, and his wife and children Batwoman and the Robins respectively. While Renee had been enraged at the sacrifice of Barbara Gordon, understandably so, she hadn’t seen it as Tatsu did.

Barbara was an honored warrior, who gave her life in service to her clan.

It had led to many arguments over the past few years, neither of them giving ground on their respective viewpoints. In order to keep the peace and remain happy, the two had agreed to never discuss it, and for the most part it worked. There was still a massive undercurrent of tension between them, but for the most part they were able to easily work it out.

She needed to speak up now though, again, and hope that Renee would listen to her. “Renee, you must be kept safe”.

“I am safe. I’ve got my pistol. I’m a cop first, is everybody forgetting that?”

“Exactly” a new voice says from the doorway as a rather frazzled Harvey Dent walks in. He didn’t look well, especially not with his mussed hair and bloodshot eyes. He walked strangely too, as if he was off kilter. “Which means, you listen to your higher ups doesn’t it Commissioner Montoya?”

His voice was different too. Rougher, more ragged.

Harleen was already worried for her friend.

“Mayor Dent…” Renee begins, wanting to continue to make her case. The man wasn’t having it though, and he snaps. “Doesn’t it...Commissioner Montoya?” he repeats in a louder voice. Renee could only look away angrily, her hands playing with the hem of her pockets. “Yes”.

“Good” Harvey says, appearing to be mollified a bit by her answer. “Good. That means that when I put you on administrative leave for your own protection that you have to listen to me”.

“What?!” 

Batman was looking at Harvey curiously himself, not having planned any of this in advance. In fact, the man’s presence here in and of itself was something that he wasn’t aware would happen. He didn’t know what to make of his appearance though.

‘The election must really be getting to him’.

“You can’t take me out of the field Mayor Dent”.

“I can and I just did” he says while reaching for a cup of water he’d poured from the nearby fountain. He takes a sip and collects himself. “I can’t have the commissioner murdered by a psychopath. Especially not now”.

“This is about your reelection?” she asks in a rage.

“No, no...I phrased that wrong…” the man says, trying to calm the already stoked anger of the woman. “Really? Seems like you phrased it honestly asswipe. I don’t give a fuck if you’re losing to some hot shot new poltician…”.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

Harvey was now seething, as if a switch had been flipped in his head to turn him into a rage filled monster. He even cowed Renee who was unprepared for the language or the demeanor coming from the family man.

“I’m sorry...I’m sorry…”.

He calmed down quick enough and soothes out his hair with his hand, looking around to see that all eyes were on him. “I’m...I’m just tired. Haven’t been sleeping. No right to take it out on all of you but…”.

His eyes settle on Batman who was looking at him as if he was staring deep into his soul. 

“I’m sorry” he repeats, though this time it was directed at the capes within the room, him knowing their identities and indeed being friends with them. This little outburst of his, he knew it was going to prompt a discussion and an outreach later.

_ “You’re cracking Harv”. _

He ignores the voice in his mind and continues on, looking at Montoya again as he tries to deliver his point in a clear and concise way. “Commissioner, right now, we are in a lull of crime. The lowest Gotham City has probably had...ever, in her whole existence. I don’t want that messed up, regardless of whose going to be in office at the end of this election”.

He looks around the room, wanting to pull a speech out of thin air, hoping to inspire them in the way he used to. In the way he’d long felt incapable of doing anymore. 

“I have..children...in this city too…”.

He was hampered by the need to breath, his exercises working to keep him calm though he wasn’t sure if his words were having the desired effect.

“Look...I get it Harvey. I was being a bitch, I’m sorry” Renee says, offering an olive branch. “But I can’t just hide away inside…”.

“It’s not up for debate” he cuts her off, hating that she was trying to countermand his direct order. It made him feel like he was loosing power. “I’ve already arranged for two officers to take you home and maintain a twenty four hour guard over you until this maniac is captured”.

Her eyes narrow, and she turns to Batman, thinking that he’d possibly arranged this. He doesn’t give anything away, but she could tell that the entire bat family was rattled by Harvey’s abrupt behavior as well.

“So..that’s it?”

“That’s it”.

He wasn’t moving, he’d planted his feet and was going to remain firm on this issue. “What if I refuse?”

“What if I refuse?” Harvey mocks, parroting her words back at her before he advances on the commissioner. “Then turn in your fucking badge and pistol. I don’t need someone who isn’t going to listen, especially not when I’m looking out for their best interests” he says in a light, and yet still deep tone. “All of you...ingrates. Don’t realize what I’ve put on the line for you. What I’ve sacrificed”.

His talk was frightening Harleen who had never seen this side of Harvey before. ‘Alright, calm down. Calm down. Talk to Ivy first. Talk to Ivy and then...I don’t know, talk to Harvey about this. We’re his friends. It’ll be okay’.

“You don’t…”.

The time for Renee’s arguments was passed, and Harvey wouldn’t hear them any longer even if she tried to voice them. “Out. The cars waiting for you on the front steps. We’ll call you when it’s all over”.

With that, Renee knew that it was over, and she knew that crossing this wild and unknown Harvey wouldn’t be a good idea. Instead? She storms out in front of her colleagues and girlfriend, Tatsu making to go after her before stopping and remaining still.

“You can go if you want to” Batman says, knowing that the woman’s code of Bushido was preventing her from going without direct permission from him. “No, it wouldn’t be...smart right now. She needs time. Time to cool off”.

  
It was a wise policy to take up, and he hoped that when it came time, she’d be able to help the woman relax and calm down as well.

They were still left with another issue, a variable they hadn’t been counting on at all. Renee was known to be led by her passions, it was part of what made her a good cop and a good commissioner, even if she wasn’t always, strictly speaking, by the book.

Harvey though? He was always calm and rational.

Until now.

They all gazed at him, wondering what the next step would be now that Renee was out of danger. “Now, let’s focus on catching this bastard” Harvey says, trying to get them enthused and excited. All he got were blank stares in return, and a curiosity hung in the air.

What the hell was going on with Gotham’s mayor.

**_Outside the GCPD_ **

She was enraged, and it showed in her entire posture and in all of her movements. Her hands were tucked inside of her coat pockets, and she held her head down as she looked at the steps leading out of the department. ‘Kicked out? Like basura? No. No. Fuck them! Mierda!’

She only looks up to see the police cruiser parked along the side, knowing that this was most likely the ride arranged for her by the mayor. She turns back to the building and screams out, “I HOPE SHE BEATS YOU COCKSUCKER!”

She knew he couldn’t hear her, and she knew that she didn’t mean that. Hell, when it came time to vote she’d be going to the booth and pulling the lever for Harvey. Still, she was angry at him. And confused. ‘Why the hell are they treating me like this?’

‘They’re worried’ she reminds herself. ‘They’re worried. This isn’t about mistreating you Renee. Stop it’. She began to feel guilty now, hating that she’d said the things she did and yelled at them, all of them, even the bat family. ‘Alright...alright. Cool it off. Apologize later or something...I don’t know’.

She finally reaches the back of the cruiser and opens the door, getting in and closing it behind her when she sees the two men seated in the front. “Alright boys. I guess we gotta go home. Your commish is on time out now” she begins, reaching into her pocket to retract a cigarette and her lighter.

The car pulls off of the curb without either of the two officers in the front saying anything. She didn’t pay much mind to it though, and instead focuses on trying to light her cigarette. It occurs to her though that she’d pissed off enough people today and decides to ask if either of the two cops minded if she smoked. 

“Hey, you guys don’t mind if I light one up do you?”

There was still no response, and Renee was starting to get annoyed. “Don’t tell me Dent told you not to even talk to me as well” she says.

The one in the driver’s seat chuckles, though it sounds much more like a snort than an actual laugh. “I’m...gnnnnrrfff grnnnrff...sorry, I’m just...grnnnrfff...shy”. Her police senses were instantly ticked on by that, and she looks at the cop in the passenger seat. “What about him. Is he shy too?”

The cruiser stops at a red light, and it does so rather quickly and harshly. Because of that, the officer in the passenger seat slumps forward until his head is resting on the dashboard. Renee goes wide eyed at realizing he was dead, the blood running down his back from the massive knife wound that had been inflicted. 

She begins to reach for her sidearm, but as soon as she does she smells something. It makes her dizzy, and throws her off. Soon she can’t even feel her arm, let alone use it, and it falls limply away from her holster as her whole body slides to the right to rest against the door.

Her eyes flutter, and it’s a struggle for her to stay awake. She looks down to see the small gas canister at her feet, throwing up a small plume of smoke. It was a potent knockout gas and she knew that soon she wouldn’t be able to anything.

She reaches for the door handle of the car, wanting to open it before she remembers that the squad cars in the GCPD’s fleet were designed to not have handles on the inside of the rear doors. The things you forget while in a panic. 

She turns back to see that the driver had finally turned around to look at her, and he wore a small respirator around his mouth to prevent himself from being affected by the gas. “Hello...gnnnnrrr...gnrrr...Renee...my final piece of my bride”.

With that, she feels her eyes close for one final time, unable to fight back against the overwhelming urge to sleep that bubbled up within her. She couldn’t fight back any longer, and soon all she sees is blackness.

**_The Iceberg Lounge_ **

Jason pays the cab driver his fare and gives him a light smile as he pulls up at the curb to the Iceberg. He and Jenny came her often enough, well, her everyday considering she worked here, but she didn’t know that it was indeed a special occasion. 

Oswald had decided to go all out, even though nothing special was planned on the roster for that evening. He wanted this night to belong exclusively to his little girl, though he didn’t want to give away the surprise.

Jason steps out of the cab and holds the door open for Jenny who gingerly steps out and takes his hand before lacing her arm through his and laying her head upon his shoulder. “Is it strange that no matter what, I always love coming here?” she asks, letting Jason look down at her and admire the dress she wore. 

  
It was form fitting, but still quite classy. She had a habit of always dressing her best. It was a black dress with a slightly plunging neckline, also being slit up the sides to her lower thigh. Her hair was also done up quite nicely in a bun, while she proudly wore the necklace that Jason had bought for her on their two year anniversary. He always felt embarrassed by it, as it wasn’t the most expensive piece of jewelry. He refused to take his parents money for it, and relied on the night job he did waiting tables at an exclusive restaurant to finance it.

It took him two months to save up and buy, and when he presented it to Jenny she acted as if he had given her the moon itself.

Whenever they went out she wore it, and it never ceased to be the cheapest part of her get up. She didn’t care about the money, it was the fact of him getting it for her alone. “You look beautiful” he says, seemingly out of nowhere, though Jenny appreciated it all the same. 

“I try my best despite being a short waddling penguin” she teases, having taken to allowing her father’s nickname to fall down to her over the years. “Well...you are a little short, and hey, now that I notice, you do look a little like a penguin with that dress”.

He was teasing her, but indeed the contrasting white patterns that formed parts of the dress in lines and alternating squares set against the black backdrop did bring to mind a penguin. She lightly taps his chest reproachfully. “But you are a very beautiful penguin”.

That made her blush and she moves closer to her boyfriend, knowing that even if it was chilly her desire to be near him had nothing to do with it.

They begin to ascend the steps that lead up into the lounge, and that was when Jenny picked up on the fact that things seemed to be much more lively at the Iceberg than they usually were. A cursory glance at the parking lot showed that only their normal clientele, still undeniably wealthy, was there. 

Yet the red carpet, literally, was rolled out down the stairs. At the top of the stairs stood her father, smoking his long cigarette in its holder and wearing his most dapper suit and top hat. The monocle, the omnipresent monocle, as usual, was there to complete the look.

“Jason...did I forget something?” she asks.

“No, what would you have forgotten?” he asks.

“Well...it’s not your birthday because it’s well before August 16th so….your parents anniversary?”

“Nope”.

“Your sister’s birthday?”

“Nope again”.

“Then what is it?”

He laughs off her questions and smiles, rubbing her cheek gently. “Just a night where I want to make it up to you. I’ve been a bit neglectful haven’t I?”

“Well...I was starting to think you liked reading books more than spending time with me” she admits. “Well...here’s me proving that you’re wrong”.

The young couple finally makes it to the top of the steps where Oswald was waiting, a wide smile on his face. “Ohh sweetie, my little girl, you look so beautiful tonight!” Jason was glad that Oswald always talked to his daughter like that, so she wouldn’t think anything was going on that was out of the ordinary.    
  
While she was shorter than Jason, she towered over her father, and in greeting she leans down to hug him. “Hi dad. Hey, I wanted to ask, is something special going on tonight that I forgot? I don’t remember if we had any guest acts going on”.

Jason looks at Oswald, warning him with his eyes to not give away what was going on. He was sweating now, and it was clear that while he was a former criminal who knew how to lie, he simply wasn’t as effective against his daughter. “What? Ohh, no no. Nothing special” he says despite feeling that what was happening tonight was one of the most special things to happen since her birth.

“Just...well, I felt like it was a good night to just enjoy ourselves and I figured since you two were coming in I’d put it all to good use. Why not a bit of random merriment?”

Jenny was convinced by that, equally unable to believe her father would conceal something from her as he was unable to lie to her. “Ohh...well, okay” she giggles. “I love when the Iceberg is all lit up like this. It’s beautiful” she says, admiring the intricate lighting that ran along the walls.

Something occurs to her and she looks towards the side door in the entryway which led to the main office. “Ohh, one second. Jason, I’m so sorry. I just needed to send out an email to the catering company for next month’s forties ball. I had to correct something”.

He nods, enjoying when things seemed to just line up and allow him to do what needed to be done. “Go right ahead sweetie. I’ll wait here”.

“Nah, go get us a table” she says.

“I’d really prefer it if I could walk you in” he says, moving forward and cupping her chin, laying a gentle kiss upon her lips that causes the young woman to go weak kneed. “Ohh...ok...okay” she says dopiley, lost in his eyes.    
  
He releases her and she begins to move towards the office, still turned to face her boyfriend. “I’ll be...right…”. She stops as she almost stumbles on her heels, but continues on. “I’ll be right back” she says before turning and moving quickly to her destination.

“Take your time” he calls out, knowing that she would be rushing as quickly as she could to get back. He turns to Oswald and reaches into his jacket pocket, retracting the ring box and handing it down to the man who was practically jumping in glee.

“Okay, thank you so much for your help with this Mr. Cobblepot”.

“Oswald my boy, Oswald. We’re going to be family very soon after all” he says, opening the ring box and looking in. “Ohh...such a beautiful ring. Jenny is going to love this”.

“I hope so” Jason explains. “I had to save for this even more than the necklace. It isn’t much but…”.

“Nonsense my boy, nonsense”. Oswald reaches up to pat his shoulder, smiling wide. “Jenny has never been one who needs the glitz and glammer. Of course she likes it, she’s a Cobblepot, but she’d never rely on someone else to give it to her. No. She works for that herself. Love….she’s like her mother in that regard. She loved me when I didn’t have three pennies in my pocket”.

“You miss her a lot”.

It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. In a way? Jason knew exactly how Oswald felt. Maybe. He wasn’t sure and he wasn’t going to put that thought to words. Especially not now. 

“I do. She was that one special girl that every man has Jason, well, to me at least. You? You have her daughter as yours”. The man’s smile was open and honest, and it cut Jason to the core that his mind drifted to Barbara at the mention of “one special girl” in place of Jenny.

He didn’t have time to reflect on that though, as Oswald had pocketed the ring box and patted it through his suit. “It’ll all be ready! Served at the bottom of her champagne glass. Very classy if I do say so myself Mr. Wayne”.

“Thank you”.

The Penguin suddenly turned serious and stared up at his future son in law. “I don’t have to warn you do I?”

Jason smiles and nods. “You don’t but we should probably continue on with tradition regardless”. Oswald almost cracked a smile, always enjoying the boy’s moxy when it came to life. How he just ran straight ahead, not a worry in the world.

“Alright then, have it your way. Remember, I still know people. If I so wished it, I could make you disappear if you ever lay a hand on her in violence or touch another woman in lust do you understand?”

“I do sir”.

“I don’t have need for concern do I?”

“No you don’t”.

The man’s expression returns to one of warmth and friendliness and he reaches his hand out to the boy. “Hand your flipper here for a shake son”.

Jason takes it and firmly grasps it, a trust easily established between the two men. “Son. Huh”. Oswald smiles himself. “Might take some getting used to on your end but I’m already at peace with it. I’m happy, beyond words, at knowing that I’m handing off my daughter to a good man. One day, I hope you understand this feeling yourself”.

“I’m sure I will Mr. Cobblepot”. 

“Alright, all handled. I despise dealing with that company” Jenny says, walking out into the hall and reattaching her arm to Jason’s. “Then why do you deal with them dear?” Oswald asks. Jenny rolls her eyes. “The people who come to our forties ball want an authentic experience, which means SPAM. Try finding another company in this city not only willing to work with SPAM but also able to make it taste good”.

“Ahh, right that. Right that”.

She turns and smiles up at Jason. “Shall we dear?”

“We shall. See you a little later Oswald”. 

The man smiles and waves them off, watching Jenny’s eyes go wide at indeed how far he had decided to go out for his daughter’s proposal. Tapestries lined the wall, and an ice sculpture of a penguin was on every table. She sees her favorite band playing up on stage as well, slow very smooth jazz planned for the whole night.

“Jason...you and daddy…”.

He blushes and looks away. “Well...I asked your dad to make this a little more special. Thank him” he says modestly. Jenny wasn’t having it though, and she reaches up to kiss him. “I know you planned every single detail. Daddy probably refused to let you try and pay for it, and he probably went further than you even wanted. Tell me if I’m hot or cold?”   
  


“Jenny...you’re the hottest thing in here right now”.

That set her off even more, and she begins to pull him towards the dance floor in response. “Come on Jason. Dance with me before we sit down”.

“My pleasure”.

**_Titan’s Tower, Konn’r’s Room_ **

“Mommy?”

“Yes bumgorf?” she asks while tucking the little boy in, pulling the covers up to his neck to ensure that he would be nice and warm. Despite the heating system being top notch in the tower, it was still composed of steel, and thus was a little chilly. 

Tamaraneans and Kyrptonians were both hardy races but still, a mother worried.

“Who is my daddy?”

The question stopped her cold, and the pain it caused registered on her face. She hadn’t prepared for this question as well as she thought she had, but it was a question she knew had to be answered nonetheless. He had the right to know.

“He…..”.

She still didn’t know how to answer it, and the wide innocent purple eyes that look up at her weren’t helping. “He wasn’t a good man sweetie...I know that probably isn’t what you wanted to hear but...he wasn’t. He was very evil”.

“Ohh…”.

She hated the heartbreak she heard in his voice, and she knew that she had to say something to placate him, but his next question came quick enough to preempt her. “Then...how am I here?”

“What?”

“Well, mommies and daddies need to be together to have babies right?” he asks, prompting a curiosity from his mother. “And who told you about this?”

“Uncle Gar”.

“Uhh huh...and what did Uncle Gar say?” she asks, ready to rip the green man’s head off if he told her son about how babies were made. “Uncle Gar told me that a mommy and daddy order a baby from a stork, which is a big bird that carries the baby too them. He even turned into one to show me!” he giggles. “It’s a silly looking bird”.

  
She breathes a sigh of relief and feels momentarily bad about instantly judging her friend so harshly. Now though? She had a different problem to deal with. Running her fingers over her son’s cheek she smiles sadly. “Well...your...I don’t know what to call him as he isn’t really a father but...the man who...ordered you with me, he….well, he made me do it”.

  
She hated that she was being honest, though in her own coached way. She didn’t see any other way out of it, penned in as she was. ‘X’Hal help me’ she pleads to her goddess. “So….you didn’t want me?”

“Of course I did sweetie. I wanted you more than anything else in the whole universe!” she explains, not willing to tell him ever of her fear and how she had almost given him up. “No, no. I always wanted you, my little hope. Always, but...well, you came in a way I didn’t expect. Your father hurt me very badly. He was an evil man but you? You are the only good thing, no, great, amazing, perfect” she teases him, poking his belly through the covers to make him giggle as she goes on.    
  
“Thing he ever did” she finishes.

When his laughter dies down, he only has one more question, one that weighed heavily on his mind now. “If he was evil...am I evil?”

“No”.

Her answer was quick and succinct. “You’re your mommy’s bumgorf, which means you’re a good guy and one day...one day you will be the best good guy to ever live. People will look up at you and see the same thing I do. Hope”.

She looks towards his closet and slowly gets up, moving towards it and opening it while reaching for a box at the very top. She didn’t understand she was doing this. Hell she didn’t understand why she even kept it, but slowly she takes a cardboard box down, and retrieves a red cape from within it. 

Konn’r’s eyes were following his mother with rapt attention, and when she splays it out his eyes go even wider. On the cape was a giant “S”.    
  
“This belonged to your father” she explains, coming back to the bed and splaying it out over him atop his other blankets. He curls his tiny fingers over it, and looks down at the symbol, a little scared due to the fact that he found out it was his father’s who was apparently evil and hurt his mother. 

That was enough to make the boy wary.

“A lot has come out about who your father was and what he was supposed to mean” she explains, tracing over the symbol with her finger. “On Krypton this symbol meant hope. He was meant to be this planet’s hope”.

“He didn’t though?”   
  


“No sweetie and good riddance to him” she says. “He failed but...he left a legacy and a symbol that need to one day be redeemed by someone and I think...well, I think the best person to carry this symbol would be you”.

He looks down at the symbol and doesn’t feel as afraid of it as he was before. Instead, he now feels a sense of...belonging perhaps? “I’ll be a hero one day mommy. I’ll make you proud”.

She was happy that none of these facts had overwhelmed the boy as she always wanted to be honest and not hide anything from him. It was a promise she’d made to herself, and she was ecstatic to have kept it. 

She kisses his forehead and clicks on the nightlight beside his bed with a smile. “You already do baby. You already do”.

That made him smile wide and he waves his little hand goodbye to her. “Goodnight mommy. I love you”.

She was the door and turns to rest there for a minute, blowing a kiss to her son. “I love you too Konn’r. Sweet dreams”.

With that she closes the door, ensured that her son indeed would have sweet dreams, content that he was loved and more than the sum of his father’s sins. It hurt to know how he came into this world, but upon speaking to Elise again, the Queen of the Amazons, she couldn’t help but agree that Konn’r was the best thing to happen to her. 

Her beloved hope. 

**_The Iceberg Lounge_ **

She was smiling at him from across the table, and he knew that the time was coming. He was counting down the seconds until the champagne would be served, knowing that the ring that would bring him into the next phase of his life was sitting at the bottom of her glass. 

He didn’t feel nervous, merely a strange sense of readiness. He hadn’t felt this way since he’d last put on the Robin suit.

Or when he’d seen the Suit of Sorrows.

“Is everything okay Jason?”

“Huh?” he asks, coming back to Earth just in time to see her hand snake across the table to grasp his in her own. “You just seem...distracted maybe?”. She reaches up with her other hand to brush a stray hair back behind her ear. “I...well I hope I’m not boring you. This has been an amazing night so far…”. 

It was then that he sees the waitress moving over with the two glasses of champagne on the tray in her hand. “Well, it’s about to get better. The champagne is coming” he says, drawing her attention back behind her. 

“And it looks like your father got you your favorite”.

In one of the second floor balcony booths overlooking the stage Oswald raises his glass as their own are placed before them. Both smile wide and do the same thing, raising their glasses in a toast before turning back to one another. 

“To you Jenny” Jason says, raising his glass in a toast. “You’ve given me so much joy and love. My favorite Penguin” he jests. “I love you”. He felt himself calmed by saying those three words, as he knew that he wasn’t lying. ‘You love her Jason. You know you can spend your life with her. Stop worrying’ he thinks to himself before bringing the glass to his lips and sipping.

Jenny blushes and presses the brim of hers to her lips but stops as she notices something strange at the bottom of the glass. “Ohh no” she says. “Someone didn’t clean this one. I don’t wanna chew out the wait staff but if that had happen…”.

“Why don’t you see what it is?” he asks cryptically, making her ever more curious. 

She listens though, and returns her gaze to the bottom of the glass. The fizz was dying off, making it easier to see at the bottom, and at first she can’t make out what the round metallic item was. Soon though, it hits her and her eyes go wide. She almost drops the glass as she shakes in joy, unable to even get words out as she looks over at her boyfriend. 

Her mouth opens and closes, reminding him a bit of a fish. The Wayne heir laughs and gets up out of his seat before moving to the side of the table beside her, kneeling down as was tradition. He reaches up gently and takes the glass from her hand, taking a fork to quickly fish it out. “I uhh...I went a little traditional” he mutters embarrassedly, not knowing what to make of her lack of response as of yet.

He wipes the ring with one of the clothes provided with the place setting, and when it is dry he holds it up for her to see. Taking her hand, he launches into his proposal. “Jenny Cobblepot, I wanted to ask you this because if I don’t, I know a piece of me will be missing. I wanted to ask, as I think you can guess, if you’d make me the happiest man in the world and do me the honor of being my wife?”

She nods and swallows, unable to get the words out and unable to stop smiling as her excitement got the best of her. Finally she composes herself enough to whisper “yes” while pushing her hand out to him. He knows that this was overwhelming to the girl and decides to make it easier on her by taking her hand in his own and slowly placing the ring on her finger.   
  
When he’s done, he keeps a hold of it to press a kiss to the back of her hand.    
  
She seems to come back to life at this, and not caring for how expensive her dress was, throws herself down to her knees to be level with the man..her fiancee, and kiss him with all her might. Jason was taken off guard by this and feels himself thrown back onto his rear end by the woman’s forceful attack upon him. 

He didn’t care, and neither did the other members of Gotham’s upper crust who had been present through the whole night. They’d watched the couple dance, eat and now? They watched them kiss like there was no tomorrow. 

His hand slowly goes around her waist, pulling the girl ever closer as the sound of clapping could be heard all around. “Ohh Jason...I’m...I’m so happy!”. She was crying now, though they were tears of joy, and Jason helped wipe them away with his thumb while working on bringing both of them back to their feet.

He slips and they both tumble back to the ground in a heap, drawing even more applause and approval from the others over the hilarity of how the male Wayne had proposed to the future Mrs. Wayne, Jenny Cobblepot. 

Undoubtedly it would be a story told at parties and fundraisers for many years, and as they both laid there for a moment, trying to collect themselves, they took one look at each other and began to laugh.    
  
Everything was perfect.

**_The Earth’s Atmosphere_ **

A large metallic object was heading right for the green and blue planet below it, flames licking around it as it broke through at a massive pace.

Not much could be told about it, other than the fact that if you got close to it you could see it wasn’t an asteroid. In fact, it looked very much like….a rocket.

Another thing could be discerned about it though, and that was a large mark that was painted on the side. It was of an alien make of course, though Earth was well used to the existence of aliens at this point.

Its type would even be something that was familiar to them.

While it couldn’t be made out readily at that moment, the flames decrease slightly as it enters the troposphere from the stratosphere, where the symbol was much less obscured. If you looked closely the symbol had an Earth equivalent too, just as the one that had brought Kal-El here did.

It was a Z.

The ship continues on its trajectory towards a city below, unknowingly on a course to change the lives of two very important people.

That city was Metropolis. 


	6. Chapter 6

**_236 Years ago, Argo City, Krypton_ **

“Kara we have to go! Now!”

The girl didn’t want to fight her mother on this, especially with the horror unfolding behind her. Brainiac, a shadowy figure who had appeared only recently to invade Krypton, was beginning to absorb the City of Argo. 

She watched in horror as the alien’s ship appeared in the sky above her city, and as his robotic foot soldiers moved over the streets with ease. The soldiers of Krypton were powerless to stop them, and even if they could what did it matter?   
  


The planet was dying, the core destabilized and about to explode, killing all life upon it. Krypton was doomed, and this new foe was only their to save, in his own crude form, what he could in the way of information. 

The buildings themselves were atomized and turned into nothing but data streams that were then beamed up into the ship, where their ultimate fate was unknown the planet’s inhabitants. Kara stops and stares in horror before she is pulled back by her mother’s harsh grasp. 

“We have to go Kara!”

With that they are off again, rushing towards Alura’s lab. “Mother what’s going on? Please? What are we going to do?”

Alura doesn’t answer though as they have gotten to the door to the lab. She presses her hand against the handprint scanner and the system’s computers recognize her as one who was allowed to enter. The doors slide open, and she doesn’t even bother to close them in her rush, focused only on pulling her daughter along. 

“Kara...I haven’t told you much, or really explained anything but...your uncle knew this was going to happen” the dark haired woman says as they enter the main atrium where a small ship was primed for launch, aimed at the open roof. 

“Mother...what is this?”

Alura moves over to the computers, prepping the system for launch. “I don’t have much time to explain but, your uncle, Jor-El, knowing that Krypton was doomed, built a ship for his son, you cousin Kal. He also put as much information onto the ship’s mainframe as he could, including part of his consciousness, or well...he’s probably doing that now, I don’t know”.

The rocket’s canopy opens with a hiss, exposing the seat within it.    
  
It was big enough for one passenger.

  
Kara was slowly beginning to realize, and she turns to her mother in horror, wanting to refuse to go alone. Alura was one step ahead of her though, knowing her daughter more than she knew herself. She grasps the younger girl’s shoulders harshly and smiles tightly. “He’s going to need you sweetie”.

“Who?”

“Kal” Alura says. “Earth is where he’s going. It’s a...well..rather primitive world right now, but when you two get there they’ll still need those who know how to lead. To guide them. Keep them from making the same mistakes we did”.

“Mother...no...no. I wont go without you”.

“You wont be” she explains. “In the same way to Jor-El will upload his consciousness, I will upload mine. You will never be without me child”. She stops to stroke her daughter’s cheek when an explosion rocks the planet, making it clear that time was rapidly drawing short.

Kara, tears streaming down her face, was ready to agree, knowing that this had to be done. 

“Wait!”   
  
They are interrupted by two figures, well, one walking and the other holding a bundle within her arms. They were instantly familiar to Alura, and their presence makes her want to vomit. 

Zod and his wife Faora.

“Stay back!” she shouts out, moving Kara behind her. “Haven’t you done enough? Our world is dying Zod and you helped kill it!” 

Zod had been the leading general in Krypton’s armies. Time and time again, he had sent them to war against other planets and peoples, vowing that Krypton would never be safe unless they secured themselves against all enemies.

When these enemies were wiped out, he turned on other Kryptonians, plunging their world into civil war. Soon their resources were exhausted and the planet was dying beneath them.    
  
“That doesn’t matter now!” he shouts back, unphased by her simple shouts. “You are sending her off planet? Somewhere safe?” he asks, pointing towards the cowering Kara who would always hold a fear of the imposing general and his wife. 

  
Faora was looking about, a uncharacteristic nervousness playing out over her face that nobody had seen before as she kept the bundle in her arms close. It was wrapped in cloth so Alura couldn’t see what it was, but she could only assume that it was some wealth or item that they’d gained through their conquests. 

“I am….for the good of Krypton. To continue our people and their traditions in another place. Another world”.

Zod draws a pistol and points it directly at the woman, hoping to gain his way by force of arms. “Under the authority of the Kyrptonian army, I order you to surrender your vessel to me”. Alura was shocked. Here they were, the planet exploding around them and their city being taken away by an alien force and Zod was trying to cow her with appeals to authority. 

She laughed. 

  
She could do nothing else.

“Zod, your authority is nothing now. And besides, you cannot save yourselves this way. The rocket is designed for only one person and one person only. You, your wife and your ill gotten gains simply wont fit” she says snidely. 

At that moment the bundle begins to move, and a hand reaches out of it, up towards Faora’s face. “Mama...need to breath”. Alura was shocked as the cloth blanket gives way and their daughter is shown.    
  
Clara-Zod, the four year old daughter of the general and his wife.

In all the excitement Alura had forgotten about her. The child was scared, and her teary eyes showed that as she clung to her dark haired mother. Faora begins to lightly sway, wanting to calm her crying daughter. “Shhh...shhh...it’ll be alright little star. It’ll be alright. Don’t cry”.

Despite her hatred for the woman, and that hatred was indeed a deep one, she couldn’t help but be moved by the sight before her. A mother’s love, regardless of who the mother was, was something that was always beautiful to behold. 

“It’s not for us” Zod says, drawing her attention back to him.

He drops the pistol, which clatters uselessly to the floor, showing that all the fight had gone out of him. His eyes were drawn, haggard, and of all the things Zod could be called, coward was not one of them. He’d personally led the charge against Brainiac when he’d first arrived, and he’d fought in every war he started.

He was also a father, something that didn’t register in Alura’s mind until now. 

“Please...just take her. Don’t make her pay for our sins”.

“Alura” Faora joins in. “As a mother, I’m begging you, begging you, please, please don’t let my daughter die!”

She had lost all tact in her fear, and being such an open tactician didn’t help either. She knew what was happening, and now her daughter did too. Alura didn’t know what to do.

Kara did though.

She reaches up to her mother’s shoulders and takes her into a hug. “Give her the rocket”.

“What?”

“Mother...she’s a child” Kara says with a smile. “I’d much rather die here with you anyways. But she...she’s innocent. You want them to start off anew right? Completely new? Well, Kal and Clara are exactly that. New. Me? Well...I consumed stuff like there was no tomorrow just like everyone else” she says with shy shrug. “I didn’t care about the planet until it was collapsing around us either. I’m just as bad so...let the new start, be a full new start you know?”

It was strange, having such a debate at such a time. One of tragedy and horror in which everything of their species was going to die. Alura knew that there was no time left though.

And she knew what had to be done.

Turning to the Zods she urges them forward. “Come here and place the child within the rocket” she explains. “Thank you! Thank you Alura!” Faora begins before the raised hand of the woman silences her. “Don’t thank me. Thank me by never speaking to me again...the very slim time we have left to speak at all”.

The woman follows the other’s instructions, remaining mumb as she moves over towards the rocket and places her daughter inside. “Mommy?”

“Shh...I told you it was going to be alright!”

“Where am I going? Are you going to be there? Are you coming too?”

Faora remains silent, unable to say a word as her husband comes up beside her and smiles down at his daughter. “Yes sweetie...we will be waiting. For now? Just go to sleep and rest” he explains before leaning in and pressing one last kiss to her forehead. “I love you. I love you so much”.

“I love you too daddy. I love you mommy”.

Faora was crying now, and she simply repeats the action of her husband but goes on further to smother her daughter’s face in her kisses. “I love you too Clara. You will do the Zod name proud”.

Alura bit back the sentence that was on her lips that wanted to be let loose at that sentiment, indeed hoping that she could make the Zod name proud by being nothing like her parents. Instead she becomes clinical, detached, and begins to the preparations for launch. 

“Step back from the pod” she calls out, causing the two parents to do so as the canopy lowers. Their daughter looks at them through the glass which then rapidly freezes over due to the cryogenic device within. 

The rocket slowly begins to turn on, and Alura rushes for her final act to top this off. “Zod, here” she says, moving to the input relay still attached to the rocket. The general follows his orders, followed to the end by his wife as the glass dome opens, exposing a receptacle of some sort.

“I was planning on this just being me to guide Kara” she explains with a sigh. “But with a bit of blood, I can create an artificial version of another person. This construct will serve to guide Kar...Clara…” she corrects, biting back the sorrow she feels at her own daughter’s imminent death.

‘At least you’re here with her’ she reminds herself, returning to her proceedings. “Then we shall place our blood inside” Faora exclaims.

“No”.

“What?!” the woman screams.

“This is my proposal” Alura says. “Without your agreement, this rocket doesn’t leave the planet. Zod and I shall add our blood”.

“This is all so you can selfishly live on!” Faora accuses venomously.

“Really?” she roars back angrily. “I’m letting my daughter die so yours can live, and you’re calling me selfish?” She takes a moment to calm herself, knowing that this was no time to lose one’s temper. “I wont do this if you both of you warmongers are going to be the only thing to guide her on Earth. Hell, I’m only allowing one of you to do it because you’re her parents. Be happy for even that concession”.

Faora was going to protest more, but she’s stopped by Zod who knows that this was not up for debate with Alura, as he could see it in her eyes. She wasn’t going to be moving on this point.

“We agree. Just...get her off this planet”.

  
Faora feels her own resistance break down as her husband gives, and she bows to his decision. “What do I do?”

“Follow my lead” Alura says, stepping forward and pressing her thumb against the pad. A small metallic blade reaches up and cuts her, drawing blood which begins to eagerly flow into the receptacle and thus into the ship where her consciousness was being reconstructed. She winces, and then pulls back, instinctively sucking on her thumb to stem the blood flow. One of the receptacle closes, having received all the genetic input from her DNA that it needed.

“Alright, now one of you” she orders, gesturing at the second open bowl.

Faora and Zod look at one another and the woman slowly smiles at her husband. “You husband. You’ll be the one to guide her best”.

“Faora, you should…”.

Before he could respond she grasps his hand and slams his thumb down upon the device, imprinting him and cutting his flesh in the same way as Alura had been cut. “You are the general” she says, leaning in to kiss her husband as the procedure finishes.

“Faora….”.

“You better tell her about her mother when she gets to this...Earth” she chides, spitting out the last part of the sentence, her daughter’s new home, with dismissal, seeing it as too far behind Krypton to even be worth mentioning.    
  
The glass fully closes, and the rocket is now ready to depart, carrying with it the second last hope of Krypton. The boosters ignite, and quickly enough it gains enough power to lift into the air. Alura grabs Kara and pulls her close, stroking her hands through her daughter’s hair lovingly as she holds her.

“You’ve given your life for something greater Kara. You’re a hero”.

“No I’m not. You are”.

She smiles and just contents herself with being with her daughter, watching as not only Brainiac gets closer and closer, but as the rocket quickly gains momentum and blasts out of the building, heading towards open space. Faora and Zod themselves were clinging to one another, uncharacteristically soft in their last moments. 

“We did the right thing Faora”.

“I know”.

“I love you” he says, causing his wife to smile up at him while remaining in his chest. “I love you too”.

With that, the four all hold their respective loved ones close as the beam from Brainiac’s ship finally falls over the lab. All around them, items began to disappear, turned into nothing more than data streams to be collected. 

Even as the beams reached them, none of them moved, and simply held onto one another, hoping against hope that this wasn’t the end. 

They knew it wasn’t. In their hearts, they knew.

**_Outside of Krypton's Atmosphere_ **

The rocket moved on, unseeing as the planet from which it came exploded behind it, unable to do anything about it anyway. All the rocket was able to do was keep moving forward through the vast emptiness of space, on its path to a new place.

**_  
_ ** However, something went wrong, and a piece of debris from the slowly decomposing planet hits against the tail piece of the rocket, sending it slightly off course. 

At the same time as this happened though, another ship happened to enter the space around Krypton. One of Brainiac’s ships, undoubtedly there to assist in the continued extraction of information on the planet. 

The way that Brainiac travelled was trough the opening of wormholes. These wormholes allowed for quick travel around the known universe, assisting in the entity’s collection speed. These wormholes did not instantly close however, and as Brainiac’s ship comes closer and closer, the rocket slides against it. 

It was at such a velocity that the ship is thrown of course and sent careening towards the still open wormhole, and the gravitational pull of the entire phenomena pulls the rocket in even faster. It closes just as the rocket carrying Clara-Zod enters it, leaving nothing but empty space all around.

The ships of Brainiac finish their task, not knowing that either the rocket carrying Kal-El or the one carrying Clara-Zod had escaped them. Seeing their mission as complete, the ships summon other wormholes to leave the area, moving onto other points of conquest and data collection.

Krypton is left quiet and lifeless for exactly one moment until the core finally gives way. 

The planet shatters into an uncountable number of pieces which scatter out across the stars, heading to points unknown. All that’s left are the flickering flames of its own destruction which now, deprived of oxygen, begin to die away themselves.

There were only two survivors, and both were now heading towards the same destination.

How different they would turn out to be.

**_???????, Present Day_ **

Renee awoke with a splitting headache, and instinctively her hand reaches up to try and press against her temple, wanting to soothe it. She finds that she can’t however, as her hands are bound tightly to a cold steel table.

The coldness gives the fact that she was naked away as she could feel the chill instinctively. Struggle was inevitable, and Renee begins to try and worm her way out of her bonds, feeling that there was no way she’d get out by how tightly they cut into her. Whoever had tied them, knew their stuff.

“Ahh...my bride. Finally awake”.

“Who’s there?”

“Why do police do that?” the voice ponders aloud. “Ask questions they already know the answer to? I’m curious...gnrnrrrfff grnnfff”.

“Pyg” she says simply, gleaning as much from the evidence that presented itself to her, even in her groggy and off balance mind. “You may call me Lazlo”.

The man moves out of the shadows quickly, rushing towards the table where his instruments were set up. She felt the horror and fear of what would happen well up within her stomach, but, like a true cop, she fights to keep it in check.

“Alright Lazlo. Let me go”.

“I can’t do that, and you know that but I compliment you for following procedure anyways”.

He stops and moves his head upwards, staring at the ceiling of...wherever they were. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to cut you. Not yet. In fact, giving a cursory glance at your body I’ve come to realize that you fit what I want more than I realized. I won’t have to cut too much at all”.

“You don’t have to do anything bastardo” she says. “You’re already in deep. Killing all those girls. You’re done for, regardless of what you do to me. Might as well make it easier on yourself and just turn yourself in”.

The man, who was still wearing the police uniform, doesn’t seem to hear her words and instead continues on the tangent his mind was fixated on at that moment. “I’ve always wanted to be loved...gnnrrfff...hrnnn. My mother...I thought she loved me…”.

Renee knew the mentally unhinged when she came into contact with them. Hell, she lived in Gotham, let along inhabited the position of police commissioner in the city. A cursory walk up and down the streets used to bring you into contact with numerous crazies within fifteen minutes.

Or rather it used to.

  
With reforms at the asylum that had become a lot rarer as time went on. People were helped and not ignored. She had to remember how they used to do things, in those early days of reform. Maybe she could talk him down with kindness, or at least get him to reveal enough about himself that she might learn something useful if she was rescued.

If.

“Your mother….she didn’t love you?”

“Ohh she pretended to of course….from early on...but as soon as I proved defective? That ended gnnnrrr...gnrrr”.

‘Ahh okay, mommy issues. Alright, what did Batwoman say about that one? Said something a while on that with...I don’t remember which crook or psycho but they crave affection so maybe just…’.

“A mother should always love her son. No matter what. She was wrong Lazlo”. She was going to have to play it this way, at least for as long as she was tied to the table. Her words send the man into a stock stillness and he doesn’t know what to say. Slowly he turns his head, looking at her over his shoulder. 

“That’s...nice”.

He returns to his work quickly enough, wanting to finish whatever it was as soon as possible. Renee was interested, especially as it most likely involved her. “What...what are you working on?”

  
“You don’t have children?” he asks, going off on a parallel rant. “Why not?”

That threw her for a loop this time as she hadn’t expected the question to come her way. “Well umm...the way I...swing doesn’t exactly make that the easiest thing to pull off”. She chuckles lightly after her proclamation, hoping that that would placate him. “You’re talking about...gnrrr, gnrrr, the fact that, you’re a lesbian correct? You prefer women?”

“Well duh yeah”. 

“Hmm. We’ll have to fix that too. I hadn’t thought about it until now but yes...yes, that’ll have to be fixed for you to be made perfect”.

“Hey puto!” she shouts, suddenly angered. “I ain’t broken. It’s how god made me”.

“Ohh, don’t mistake what I had to say for disapproval” he says, snorting in discomfort, apparently not wanting to upset the woman despite the fact that he’d kidnapped her and tied her naked to a table. “No, no. It’s all well and good, but...not for you. No, not when you’re perfect for me. Perfect, perfect, perfect” he says over and over again, repeating himself like a broken record.

He suddenly is seized by an intense inner pain that he can’t properly vocalize, and instead resorts to holding his head and violently grunting out, worrying the bound woman that his apparent breakdown would spell her doom.

‘Easy Renee, easy. He wants you alive. He wants you alive’.

That was a small comfort, especially when placed against the fact that he’d skinned one of his victims while brutally dismembering others in a myriad of ways. 

You didn’t need to be uninjured to be alive.

Slowly he returns to normal, or at least as normal as a psychopath like Professor Pyg could pull off. He straightens up and takes a deep breath, returning to working on his contraption. He doesn’t say a word, and it’s up to Renee to continue the conversation.

“Lazlo...umm….it kind of is for me, you know?”

“It isn’t!” he snaps angrily. “No, no. You’re perfect. A few alterations and your perfect. I’ll even have spare parts. Don’t you see? Don’t you...gnrrr...gnrrrr!!!!!” he screeches, turning to showcase the two pairs of clamps her had in his hands.    
  
He advances on the gurney, worrying Renee who gives up on her strategy of placating the man and instead moves to continue her struggle. “YOU FUCKING PYSCHO! LET ME OUT OF HERE! LET ME OUT!”   
  


He roughly grabs her chin and turns her face to him, forcing her to look deeply into his maddened eyes. It was clear now that there was no way to talk this man down and that he was beyond dedicated to whatever he was working on. He had to finish it, impulsively he had to.

He slides the tong like tools he was holding down towards her eye, using a ferocious strength to keep her from moving. He slides the metal plates on either side under her respective eyelids, lightly scraping at her eyeball and causing the slightest bit of pain. More came however when he he turned it, using a swivel joint in the steel to move the rest of the tool out of her line of sight to the side. 

Her eye was now forcibly opened, and the action was soon repeated on her other eye. No matter how much she fought to close them, she simply couldn’t, and they remained open, already tearing up and drying out as they are assaulted by the cool but dry air of wherever they were. 

“Lazlo...please...please!”   
  


“Shhhh, shhhhhh, shhh...ohh my dear. My dear Bride, don’t struggle. Don’t struggle. You’ll hurt yourself...gnnnrrrr, gnrrr”. He pulls out a knife and flashes it before her eyes which look, unwillingly, upon it. “I would hate to...start all over again”.

He pulls away as soon as he is convinced that she is sufficiently cowed by the threat of the ultimate violence. Lazlo then reaches above her, well rather, above and behind her where he lowers a tv which was secured and hooked up to a moveable metal arm, presumably secured to the ceiling. 

“I want to show you how a perfect bride acts, how a perfect woman is…” he goes on. “And nobody would better instruct you than my mother. Perhaps you’ve heard of her? Anastasia Valentin?” he goes on, flicking the tv on and exposing an old black and white movie that was already playing.

“Please...stop”.

“I’ve recorded all her films you know” he says proudly. “She would’ve liked you. Loved you even, well...after you’ve been made perfect. Her name was Anastasia Valentin. She was the best actress of her generation”.

The name means something to her.

‘Anastasia…..the old movie actress’ she thinks to herself, trying to keep her mind sharp and focused. ‘What do we know about her? Ummm...played in golden age films...fell off around 1963...uhh...apparently had a son’.

Her musings are interrupted by a light pain in her arm, and she is able to turn her head and eyes just enough to see that Lazlo had injected her with something. As the mysterious cocktail ran through her veins, she had the vaguest sense of depersonalization, as if she was rising out of her body and above it.

“You just need...gnnnnrrrr...gnrrrrr...to get better acquainted”.

Lazlo’s voice was far off and muffled now, and even he looked different, taking the form of an anthropomorphic pig. She doesn’t have much time to reflect upon that though as now feels like she’s being sucked into the tv. 

  
She blacks out, or rather, she can’t see anything. She wasn’t sure. Regardless she was surrounded by blackness, and no light broke though until….it started to. The room around her became lightly illuminated, though it was in a grey hue.

“Ahh Mandy, you simply must see what Mr. Dreyfeuss had to say at the hospital today”.

  
She saw a woman, dressed in old style clothes and still in the grey hue that coated everything around her, enter the room. She was beautiful, and elegant, and Renee instantly recognized her as Anastasia Valentin. 

‘Ohh god...I’m...I’m in a movie?’ she wonders, looking down at herself to see that her hands were covered in grey as well. She turns and stares into the mirror, seeing that she was all grey and dressed in the same period of clothes as the woman before her. 

“Well dear, it’s rude to not ask me what Mr. Dreyfeuss said” Anastasia says, sitting down on a chair opposite her. “This...this isn’t real”. Renee abruptly stands and moves towards the door, hoping that she could at least manipulate the items that were in this world.

“Mandy dear, you’re being quite rude” Anastasia says, scandalized while standing again.

Renee wasn’t listening and instead lets out a whoop of joy as she opens the door and steps out, wanting to avoid even confronting the woman who was undoubtedly the cause of Professor Pyg’s insanity. 

What she finds on the other side of the door however, was less than optimal. She’d stepped into the same room, and Anastasia was still right in front of her, though this time she wore a menacing glare upon her face. 

“Going somewhere Mandy?”

She steps forward and grasps Renee by the neck, using a surprising amount of strength to hold the now struggling woman up, choking the life out of her. Abruptly, as soon as Renee feels she’s about to pass out, the woman throws her across the room and slams her into the wall, knocking the breath out of her and making her unable to move presently.

She tries to catch her breath, but she feels so weak. Unable to do anything.

“Well, we’re just going to have to teach you some manners aren’t we Mandy?”

Anastasia reaches down and grabs her again, forcing her down into the chair and then backhanding her roughly across the face. “Now Mandy, ask me what Mr. Dreyfeuss said at the hospital?”

She follows her demand up with yet another slap, refusing to let Renee even get a breath in. It was having an impact, and finally, when the assault stops, Renee sobbingly asks, “Wh...what...did...what did Mr. Dreyfeuss say?”

She was dazed, disorientated and confused, and didn’t know what was going on. She was so thoroughly out of her element, and without realizing it, that was exactly where Lazlo wanted her. She would be made perfect, and this is reflected in how Anastasia smiles widely.

“Good. It’s a start my dear. You still have so much to learn”.

**_The Narrows, Crime Scene Investigation_ **

“What the hell happened?”

Harvey Bullock had only just gotten on scene where the abandoned police cruiser was found, though Batman and Batwoman were already there. “She was taken Harvey”.

“How? How the fuck could she have been taken? We had two cops…”.

“The officers are dead” Batman says, advancing on the corpulent detective. “One was found in a meat locker downtown, without his uniform, and the other...well”.

He looks back towards the side of the car where the door was open and a body slumped out. “Jesus H Christ” Harvey says loudly, shaking his head in shock. “Have any clues to where he might have taken her?”

“Not yet, but we’re working on it”.

“Jeez...does Katana know?”

“We….we haven’t told her yet. She’s out on patrol with Canary and Question. We’re trying to keep her busy…”.

“That ain’t right” Bullock says, pointing a stubby finger at the bat. “She has a right to know. She’s her fiancee for crying out loud. You tell her bats, you tell her or I’ll…”. Harvey’s threat is cut off by Batwoman, who found something that was apparently very useful. “Batman! I’ve got something”.

“What is it Batwoman?”

The Dark Knight rushes up to his wife who was holding a piece of the officer’s uniform in his hand. “The perp had something on his gloves, and I know he was wearing gloves because of the fiber particles he left. I can’t tell you what it is, we’d need to bring it back to the cave for testing, but I’m pretty sure it’s a clue”.

  
Without a word Batman draws a vial from his belt and stuffs the fabric in, wanting to preserve it as best as possible. He was rattled, and the entire detachment could see it. Harleen was too, though hers was less visible. “We need to get back to the cave as quickly as possible. Study the residue and then we’ll find out where we can look”.

“Time is running short Bats..we don’t got all that much of it”.

“Don’t worry Harvey” Batwoman says. “We’re going to find her. I promise. We wont let you, or her down”.

He wanted to believe them. Hell, he did believe them, but at this point in time he was just too jumpy not to be cross. “Just fucking do it. Don’t stand around her scratching your asses. We’ll work the scene good enough. Do your hero thing”.

Batman nods and moves off, heading towards the Batmobile with Harleen in tow, both wanting to get to the bottom of this and save Montoya as much, if not more than the fat detective. It was there number one priority right now, and after that? They didn’t know but they’d started to assume that they’d be done.

Bruce starts the batmobile and it almost instantly rockets down the street towards their intended destination. She couldn’t keep her question inside any longer though, and she turns to Bruce, the worry easily discernible in her voice. “Bruce...do you think she’s okay?”

He doesn’t answer immediately, apparently searching for what to say to comfort his wife. Harleen beats him to the punch though and begins to use her analytic mind, experienced beyond words in dealing with the criminally insane and breaks the issue down.

“Alright, so he’s basically completed his collection right? So the worst he’s going to do is cut into her to do replacement surgery, bad enough in and of itself but at the end of the day he wont kill her because he wants to have a living girl right? I mean, his obsession with perfection, it’s all been leading up to this right? Dead isn’t perfect, dead is dead”.

Her rationale was on point, as usual, and Bruce himself feels that the tables have turned and that it was he who was comforted by Harleen’s summation. He turns the car onto the throughway, leading off into the beaten path eventually they took to get to the manor.

“He’s not going to kill her no”.

“Still, being cut up? It isn’t going to be pretty” she says, guilt and defeat setting in. “Not if we get to her first” he says, wanting to cut that off at the pass. He needed himself, and by extension Harleen, to be at the very top of their game right now.

“Let’s examine the evidence we have and as soon as we break down what it is, we’ll have something to act on”.

“Just like before” Harleen says, referencing more than any particular time that it had come down to tracing residue on a piece of fabric. It had happened a lot, in fact a lot more times than he could probably count off of the top of his head how many times that had been the case.

“Right. Exactly”.

It was a comforting thought that they’d done this before, and yet, they’d be doing it for the last time hopefully.

“Just like before”.

**_Metropolis, Lex Corp Headquarters_ **

Mercy had been worried when Lex had called her to their downtown base of operations, though nothing struck her as particularly bad. However, upon approaching the front gate and seeing the nervous expressions on the guard’s faces, she knew that something was definitely wrong.

She sees her husband standing outside of a door, his chin cupped in his own hand as he nervously paces. “Lex!” she calls out, gaining the man’s attention. “Mercy”. He moves up and takes his wife’s hand, kissing her lips and cheek lightly before pulling her further down the hallway and into an elevator.

This prompt and quick action wasn’t helping to put her at ease at all. 

“Lex...what’s going on?”

The bald man reaches forward and presses the button that would bring the elevator down to the basement level where some of Lex’s more...dangerous experiments were kept. “Something...big”.

“How big?”

“Well...you know how Superman came to Earth right?”

She rolls her eyes in exasperation. “Of course I do. Everyone does. Little baby boy who grew up to be an utter bastard came here in a rocket. Why?”

“There’s another one”.

Her blood ran cold at those words, and her mind reels at their meaning. “Another one what?”.

“Another rocket. It crashed a few hours ago, and wouldn’t you know it, it crashed right into our building site downtown”. At this he sighs, and she had a feeling that she knew exactly why that fact particularly annoyed him. It had taken him months to get a permit to resettle in Metropolis and years to build with how the city tried to extort him. They resented that he’d run to Gotham so quickly instead of making Metropolis the last bastion of anti-Superman resistance. They didn’t understand or care that Gotham was the only feasible solution at the time, nor did they remember how many of Metropolis’ most prominent citizens welcome Superman’s regime. 

They didn’t want to remember. 

The mayor and city council resented the upcoming status of Gotham as America’s first city, and they blamed one of their own for doing it. Lex and Lexcorp wasn’t welcome back there, though as usual, that didn’t stop the powerful couple who had nothing else to do but rebuild what they’d lost.

Her hand subconsciously goes to her stomach and she reflects over how empty her life still felt since Blackfire had decided to keep Konn’r. Of course she saw the baby frequently, though he wasn’t much of a baby anymore. She showered him with presents and affection, and so did Lex, making the two his favorite aunt and uncle outside of the tower.

Still...she wanted more, and so could Lex though he never said so. It was her genetics and she knew it, and her guilt over that fact was indescribable. 

“There was a survivor, though they didn’t thaw out until recently” the man continues. “Ohh? And what kind of tyrannical maniac are we dealing with now? Let me guess, a general or some sort of superpowered genius who wants to enslave us all with nanites?”

The elevator stops and the doors open at the chime of the bell, allowing the two to step out into the maximum security wing. “Worse” he says, stoking her fear. “A cranky four year old”.

“What?”.

“Just...follow me” he says, leading her down into yet another hallway, though this one was reinforced by concrete at least three feet thick. She listens to her husband and remains quiet, though a distant rumbling sound was definitely not helping her nerves.

“We took the rocket back here for further study and took a sample from the subject inside” he explains. “We’ve been able to discern, through study on Superman’s DNA, that she is approximately four years old”.

“She?”

“Yes. It’s a little girl”.

They’d finally approached the major holding area where numerous guards were standing outside of a dented out steel door, fearful of even moving next to it. “STAY AWAY!”

One of the guards move forward, making to enter the room when a bright red laser beam fires past him, just missing the man who stumbles back to avoid it. “Please…” a voice tainted by tears calls from the room. “Stay away. I want my mommy!”.

“Sir...we uhh...we don’t know what to…”.

“It’s alright” Mercy says, looking at the doorway and seeing how the steel had been torn with a ferocious strength. “I’ll handle this”.

“But...Mrs. Luthor” the guard captain protests. “She’s been exposed to red sun radiation. We tried to avoid it but...she’s like Superman now and…”.

“She’s a scared little girl” Mercy says in way of explanation as she creeps up along the wall to the opening. The man makes to speak again but is cut off by Lex who just pats him on the shoulder. “We’ll handle this”.

He quickly moves up beside his wife, following her lead as he presses his back against the wall. They scoot down until she is right at the opening, and they can hear the sobbing from inside. “Umm...hello?” Mercy calls out.

She’s responded to by yet another laser beam that rips past her and into the opposite wall. “Go away...please….I don’t want to hurt you”.

“I know that” Mercy calls back. “And we don’t have to hurt you either. We just want to check on you and make sure you’re okay” she begins before working on some trust building exercises. “My name if Mercy. Mercy Luthor. What’s yours?”

There is silence on the other end, and though they couldn’t see it the little girl had wiped her eyes. The room around her was destroyed, nothing but masses of metal where the examining table had been and scorch marks around the room.

“Clara-Zod”.

The voice carried a stiff pride in it, especially as she said her last name. Neither were aware of it but the girl had been taught, even from such a young age, to always take pride in her name. 

“That’s a beautiful name. We have a name like that one Earth to believe it or not” she calls out. “Although it’s not very common anymore. You’re from Krypton right?”

“Yes…”.

“This planet is named Earth, like I said…”.

“Where’s my mommy?” 

The girl begins to cry again, and Mercy looks back at Lex, making him aware of the risk she was about to take. He wanted to resist, tell her not to, but in the end he knew there was no choice. Besides, he was going to do the exact same thing anyways. 

“Clara...can my husband and I come in?”

“Hi Clara, my name is Lex” he calls out, wanting to introduce himself as well. “No..” the little Kryptonian snaps back. “Are you sure? Because we’d really like to come in and just make sure you’re okay”.

She gets silence again, and decides to offer the girl a deal. “Okay, how about this, we’ll step in where you can see us, and when you see us, you decide if we can come in okay?”

“....okay”.

She wanted someone, that much was clear. Her mother mainly but...that was impossible now for reasons she didn’t even understand yet. “Okay, here we come. No need to blast us though, I promise we’re friendly”. She takes a massive leap of faith and steps out into the open, though Lex follows her instinctively, both of their hands raised in surrender.

They spy the little girl instantly, hiding behind the overturned gurney like a scared animal. “Do you see us Clara?”

“Yes…”.

  
“Do we look dangerous?”

“No” the girl admits, looking at them closely before gazing at Mercy. She was shocked to see that she looked familiar. “You look a little like my mommy” she says offhandedly. “Ohh?”

“Yeah...except she has darker hair and it’s shorter”.

“Ohh….okay well, I have whats called...wait, I am called a burnette on Earth sweetie. And I like it long. Does it look nice?”

Clara nods her head and smiles lightly, though she retracts it instantly, feeling that she had shown weakness and thus broken one of the cardinal rules of her family. “Are you okay? Can we get you anything?”

“My mommy”.

Her and Lex share a look before they turn back to Clara. “Sweetie….”.

“She’s not dead! She told me she’d be here. Both of them did. Mommy and daddy!”

“Clara...Krypton was destroyed and…”.

Mercy is about to slap Lex upside the head from breaking it so bluntly to the girl, but she didn’t have a chance as the girl descends a bit into the air and her eyes glow bright red. “No! You’re lying! You’re lying! They said...they said…”.

  
For a moment Mercy fears being incinerated, but neither move and she would be forever glad for that. The girl drops back down to the floor, now on her knees as she sobs loudly, trying to hold herself in comfort. 

Mercy rushes forward and Lex tries to reach out to stop her in vain as she was already out of his grasp. She practically slides across the floor, and Clara is startled by the noise of the woman moving debris and even more startled when she is taken up in her arms. “Shhh...shhhh” Mercy soothes, holding her close and rubbing the back of her head.

To Lex’s surprise, the girl continues to cry, but this time she holds Mercy back, willing to let herself be held. Slowly, Lex gives in himself, and he walks across the room and sets himself down besides Mercy, placing his own hand on the girl’s back to add more comfort.

She wasn’t a Superman...not yet. They didn’t need to fear her. Right now? She was just a scared little girl in need of her mother. That couldn’t be given to her, and she didn’t understand why. He and Mercy would try and help as best as they could. 

One thing was for certain though.

She had to be kept a secret, otherwise the world, seeing yet another Kryptonian on their planet, might act….rashly. For now, she would remain a secret. 

For now.


	7. Chapter 7

**_The Batcave_ **

Bruce was sitting in the chair in front of the batcomputer, his eyes going over the image before him with a fine tooth comb while Harleen stood nervously beside him. “What is all this?”

“Film reel”.

“Huh?” she asks, wondering how he could tell that simply from a cursory glance. “It’s made up of mostly plastic, which in and of itself wouldn’t give much away, but the rest of it? Silver. The halide crystals give it away. The gelatin emulsion is a dead giveaway as well”.

“Alright so, what does that give us? It’s an old film reel. So his hideout is in a movie theater? That doesn’t help us. There’s what? Thirty five movie theaters in Gotham alone?”

It does help us a lot actually” Bruce corrects, gesturing to the screen. “This is old film reel Harleen. Most movie theaters stopped using it in 2009. All of them in Gotham. This reel is aged though. At least thirty years old, and the makers mark shows that it came from a company that went out of business around the same time”.

“Alright so that narrows it down a bit more” she says, watching as her husband pulls out of the screen and onto another, this one a map of Gotham with the movie theater locations already highlighted. With a quick brush of his fingers over the keys, most of the locations disappear, leaving only three. “These are the only theaters that were in operation at the time that used this specific reel, from this specific company” he explains.

“Alright, all closed down, but how many are left standing?”

She points to the one on the far right, in the narrows. “Outdated city intel” he says. “That’s already been leveled and turned into public housing. “Ahh, right...damn. Okay, what about this one in…”.

“Burned down during the Owl War”.

“Ouch, well, thanks Selina for narrowing this case down a bit” she winces, still having harsh memories of her first real test as Batwoman and the dark days of Bruce’s illness. “That only leaves one…”.

She moves to the single circled location left and her eyes widen, Bruce having already apparently known. “Bruce…”.

“The Monarch Theater” he says. “Park Row”.

“Crime Alley”.

It was where Bruce’s parents had been gunned down right in front of him by Joe Chill. She didn’t have to be a a detective to know that that was still hurting him. She was his wife, and she was the one who comforted him every night he woke up screaming from his nightmares. 

“KUSO YARO!”

Both of the bat themed vigilantes turned to watch as Katana rapidly moved down the stairs, rage and anger registered on the visible part of her face as Alfred tries, in vain, to rush after her to stop her. 

“Miss Yamshiro please….”.

“Alfred stop...let her come in” Bruce says, knowing that this was bound to happen, especially with Harvey Bullock being so close to the couple. Katana advances on her leader and slaps him, right across the face, with all notions of her samurai code going out the window at the realization that Renee had been kidnapped.

“You. You kept this from me”.

“Tatsu...we didn’t..”

“CHINMOKO!” she shouts, halting Harleen right in the middle of her sentence. Tatsu returns to Batman, the focus of her ire. “That madman has Renee. He has her, and all because of you and Harvey Dent…”.

“Harvey was looking out for her safety Katana”.

“And look how that has worked!”

The woman’s rage was understandable, and Bruce felt guilt at knowing that he’d put her in this situation. ‘We have to fix this. We have to find her’. He turns to the batcomputer and looks at the highlighted space, drawing the irate Japanese woman’s attention to it.

“Is that where Renee is?”

“Yes”.

“We are going to get her. Rikai suru?”

“Tatsu, we really need you to stay here okay?” Harleen asks, moving forward to place her hands on the woman’s shoulders, hoping that as her secondary leader as head of the Birds of Prey, and her position as her friend would lend her some leeway. 

  
Surprisingly it did and Tatsu only turns her head away in anger, though she doesn’t rebuff the blonde’s attempt at comfort. “I am going”.

“You’re too close to this Tatsu. She’s your fiancee. Trust us to save her”.

“Too close...hai. Yes. Very close. But am I anymore close to her than you and Bruce are?” she accuses, turning back to fix Harleen with a glare. That one took her for a loop because of how spot on as an accusation it was. “How often have you thrown yourself into kiken? Huh? All for his sake. You must let me come”.

The cave is silent, though Bruce had already made his decision. He lifts his cowl over his face and nods at Harleen. “We could use the backup”.

Harleen wasn’t sure, but in the end she’d bow to Bruce’s decision. It usually worked out. Usually. “Alright, but….let Bullock know?” she asks, wanting to work on making things right before they exited the scene. “We owe it to him”.

Bruce nods and rapidly turns back to the computer, putting in a call to GCPD. 

“Yeah?”

“Bullock, this is Batman”.

“If you haven’t found Renee yet, go fuck yourself”.

Bruce brushes off the man’s anger and his coarse anger and moves on with the mission at hand. “We have. She’s at the Monarch Theater. We’re en route to rescue her”. Bullock doesn’t say anything to that, but the question was in the air. “Katana is coming with us”.

“Good. You should’ve done the right thing yourself bats”.

“I know. I’m sorry. Batman out”.

Everyone was in a state of shock over that. Batman, the Batman, apologizing openly for a decision he’d made? Harleen knew why of course, and she empathized with it. They’d both agreed on trying to keep Renee out of this investigation, and inadvertently this lead to her being put in even more danger.

They had reason to feel guilty.

They’d gotten sloppy, complacent. They’d both actually started to believe that the massive presence of heroes in this city would preclude any criminal from doing real damage. They’d always known that the time of purse snatchers and thieves would never pass. Rapists and murderers would always be there, but even they could be contained and limited in their effect.

They’d assumed though, with good enough reason at the time, that the age of the Joker and the Scarecrow were over. That nothing like the Owl War would ever happen again, not in Gotham, this new shining beacon on the hill.

They were wrong.

And now? They were paying for their folly.

“Katana….with us”.

He quickly moves towards the Batmobile, a somber expression upon his face that lets Katana know something more was happening. She’s about to ask Harleen when she simply passes by her as well, heading towards the vehicle. 

Her rage remains, though it is now directed at Professor Pyg in place of the Waynes. The Japanese woman rushes to catch up, removing Soul Taker so that the sword which lends her her name isn’t bent while travelling in the vehicle.

Alfred was in the cave now, assuming his position on overwatch as the others were out searching for Renee. He takes his seat and places the headset on, patching into their comms network just as the black vehicle rockets out of the cave and into the dusky Gotham air.

“Sir...can you hear me?”

“Yes Alfred”.

He casts a look up at the screen and realizes where they are going, his worry multiplying for the man he’d raised since that faithful day. “I want you to be careful Bruce...this...well...it’s ending where it started”.

“I know Alfred”.

“They’d be proud of you, you know” the old butler continues, hearing nothing but the sound of the engine’s roar. “I’m proud of you. You have a family Bruce. You’ve done so much good, and you’re going to save yet another life...take solace in that Bruce. You’ve run your race and won. Enjoy the spoils”.

“Thank you Alfred. Batman out”.

With that the comms are turned off for the moment, and the old man is left with nothing but his thoughts that wander back through the years now. Birthday parties, weddings, anniversaries...a funeral. Their lives had become quite lively, filled with the greatest of joys. Joys he was fearful that Bruce might not ever allow himself. 

Now? It was coming to an end. 

He hoped Bruce and Harleen would be content enough in the life they built outside of being Batman and Batwoman to keep going. 

**_Apokolips_ **

The parademons fell, one by one before him as he uses his lasers, cutting down the armies of Apokolips as if they were nothing but overripe corn. “This is the most fun I’ve had in a while” he says to himself, in a self satisfied way.

“You’re not here for fun Kent”.

“Whatever Waller” he says into the earpiece, ducking a blast from one of the parademons’ heavy artillery pieces. With a quick burst of his laser vision he’s able to take it out. “May I remind you that the only reason you’re still living and breathing right now is because I not only sprung you from jail, but also control the bomb strapped to your heart”.

He grimaces at the memory of that simple fact and makes it a point to focus back on his mission at that point in time. After all, his life did depend on it. “I see that you’re back to moving on the radar. Good call”.

He hated being on Waller’s leash. He did, but he also knew that there was no choice, not if he wanted to stay alive.

It had been this way for years and over that time many threats had been removed. War world was “free” of the tyrant Mongul, and now effectively under the jurisdiction of the Green Lantern Corp. Superman had scoffed at the notion of that planet being “free” right from the start. He knew that freedom was an illusion to them, the people of that war weary planet who had only ever known tyranny.

It was a planet he himself might have liked to rule. He’d be lying if he didn’t think that challenging Mongul to a duel for supremacy over the planet wasn’t an attractive option to him. But, as usual, he had to march to Waller’s tune, and Waller said that the planet was to be freed so it was freed.

He knew the score though. What this was all really about.

“I don’t have a choice” Clark says back, navigating his way to the storeroom where the Hellspore bombs were located. Months of intelligence had been gathered, or at least intelligence that was done to the best of their abilities. At the end of the day it was all down to guesswork, and Superman knew that. 

“You better remember that”.

The tunnels he passed were dark and foreboding, running through the planet like the pathways that ants carve through their little mounds of dirt. He could hear the unearthly screaming that echoed out from within their dark confines, promising nothing but pain to a lesser being.

He was the exact opposite of a lesser being, and he feared nothing that this planet could throw at him.

The dark was soon illuminated by a hellish light that glows out from the center core, telling the Kyrptonian that he was on the right track.

“Waller, the Hellspore storage room should glow right?”

“With the ambient energy contained within those bombs? Yes”.

“Well then I’m almost there”.

He thrusts himself forward, soaring through the air and rocketing out into the room, filled to the brim with the spiked balls. They reminded him of naval mines, and they were neatly stacked in rows on rows behind each other, ready for use. 

“Alright Waller...I’m in”.

“What is your purpose here Kyrptonian?”

A figure emerges, hulking and menacing from behind one of the stacks. He wasn’t alone, and a horde of deadly looking women were behind him, ready to strike. “Waller...we’ve got a problem”.

“You have more than that” the oldest woman says, stepping forward to present herself. Darkseid prevents her though, placing an arm before her to warn her off as he himself wanted to deal with the situation. “Granny Goodness...I shall handle our uninvited guest” he says while moving forward to stand right in front of the man.

Superman doesn’t back down, not having the capability nor the sense to feel fear. “You speak of someone named Waller. Who is she?”

“The one who sent me here”.

“Ahh, and why would she send you on such a suicidal errand Kyrptonian?” the god asks. “You are from Earth yes? I recognize the stink of that planet upon you”. Darkseid begins to move around the man, inspecting him curiously. “I haven’t been there in years. Eons to someone such as yourself. Tell me, are they still cavemen who bash each other with sticks?”

Clark smiled a bit, finding that he found the question to be humorous. “Basically. Sticks have been upgraded a bit”.

Darkseid smirks back.

“They always are. I find that death is possibly the one true constant in the entirety of existence. The one thing that remains true across all words and planets. And there is no greater way to inflict death, than to do it yourself”.

“Agreed” Superman says, having himself warmed even more to death while in service of the Suicide Squad then he even had been before. “I once ruled the place”.

“And yet you serve another now” the god mocks, causing the former tyrant’s mood to somewhat harden. “Things happen”.

“Yes. Yes they do. So, answer my question, what is your purpose here?” he asks.

“Kent, you tell him anything and…..zzzzrrrrrttt”.

The transmission cuts out abruptly and for a moment Superman was confused until he sees that Darkseid had raised his hand and had to be affecting the signal somehow. “Now then, we can speak without that chattering Earthling in your ear. I find it best to always let the superior beings talk without their lessers hearing them.

‘Alright...I like this guy’.

“Now, tell me. Why are you here?”

Superman shrugs as if it was nothing more than a small manner to him. “Waller, leader of the Suicide Squad, thinks you’re a threat to Earth. Wants you out of the way beforehand. You had a leak too. Someone was communicating with the Lanterns who in turn communicated with her. Anyone you’d suspect? Specifically anyone who’s have just gotten off of Apokolips today?”

Now it was the god’s turn to lose his cool, and his face scrunches up in mild irritation, something that was in itself akin to the worst possible rage on Earth. “Barda”.

“Who?”

“One of my furies” he says, causing the remaining women to shuffle around in fear at being lumped in with their former sister’s treason. “She left, presumably to speak with Highfather of New Genesis”.

“Ahh okay. That explains how I got here then”.

“Highfather gave your mistress a boom tube” Darkseid says with a knowing nod. “Hmm...yes. I see it all now. Highfather has been planning this for a long time. Your...Waller must have given him the means through you, the one being who could make it to the core of Apokolips”.

“What do you think she’s getting out of it?”

Clark found himself amazed at how quickly this had turned around. One minute he was on his way to kill Dakrseid and his entire planet. The next? He’s speaking to him like an old friend. ‘Hmm...maybe something could be worked out’ he thinks, wondering if the high tech available to Darkseid would allow him to finally be free of Waller’s grasp. ‘Then? Well...pretty sure I could take him out myself as well’.

“It could be any number of things. New Genesis has access to many things the backwardness of Earth could benefit from”.

“That so?”

“It is so”.

“Hmm...well hey, gotta ask, not really keen on blowing up Apokolips myself. I didn’t plan on it. I’m being forced into it. Maybe we can help each other out” Kal says, voicing his willingness to make a deal.

“You wish to be freed from the influence she exerts over you I’m assuming?”

“Yes” Kal says, excited by such a prospect. “She’s placed a bomb, directly next to my heart. With one click of the button it blows. I’m only able to tell you all this because she can’t hear me right now. That’s how serious this is”.

“Ahh...and what would I get from helping you in such a way?”

“A Kyrptonian solider at your service...for a time” the man says, his eyes narrowing as he warns the god without words that he wouldn’t be a slave. Luckily for Kal, Darkseid now had an issue to deal with. The traitorous Barda and the perfidious Highfather and the planet of New Genesis, always a thorn in his side, but especially now.

‘A Kryptonian can come in handy for that’ he thinks, smiling at the proposition being offered to him. An utterly disposable fool to use for his own means and then throw away when it became inconvenient to have him around.    
  


Yes. This partnership would do.

**_Belle Reeve Penitentiary_ **

“Waller...you heard all of that right?”

“I did”.

Colonel Rick Flagg accepted that for what it was and was convinced that Waller had planned on this right from the start. ‘Seen her pull it out of nowhere too many times to doubt her now’.

The black woman leans back in her chair and smiles off to the side of the room, gesturing towards the detonation button linked up to Superman’s implanted explosive. “Would you like to do the honors?”

A figure emerges from the darkness, a woman wearing a helmet and armor that spoke to Apokoliptian origin. “With pleasure”. Big Barda walked towards the mainframe and turned her eyes to the button. Without any hesitation she slams her fist down upon it, glaring at the god who had so enslaved her through the lens’ of superman’s headset mounted camera. 

“I’m going to enjoy this”.

“You planned on having him die there all along didn’t you?” Flagg asks, not disapprovingly at all. Waller seemed at ease, happy with all that she’d accomplished. “Most in the Suicide Squad...and I do stress most, I would allow a second chance, provided they lived long enough to earn it. But Superman? No. No”. She turns her eyes back to the screen.

“After all he did? He’s just the last target to take out and if his death can kill Apokolips and Darkseid as well? So be it”.

She casts one last glance at the hulking god who had undoubtedly thought himself invincible. Who’d watched as War World fell and thought nothing of it.

The conqueror, who would one day set his eyes on Earth.

This was nothing more, nor less, than preemptive action.

Aside from that? Superman had proven that he hadn’t reformed at all. If he had? She might’ve felt guilt, but Barda’s technology allowed her to listen in on the call, even if she couldn’t speak out. The tyrant was all too willing to break free of his bonds and return to how things used to be done, and in a world that had just become stable? 

She wouldn’t allow that.

“Nobody breaks through the wall”.

**_Back on Apokolips_ **

Superman and Darkseid were both about to shake hands, celebrating their newfound alliance when a beeping can be heard coming from inside of the Kryptonian’s chest. He looks down, and instantly sees what was happening.

The bomb. 

It was being primed. 

He knew what it was. A special device hooked up by the scientists at Starr labs that harnessed red sun energy and basically radiated it and superheated the device until a small nuclear bomb was formed inside of the man’s chest. When it went off, so would Superman, the ferocity being added to by the man’s unbridled power.

“Ohh Rao...no...Waller! Waller if you can hear me stop! Stop! It was just a double cross!”

He thought about using his laser beams on it, but again, it was too close to his heart. If he even tried the chances were too great of hitting his most vital organ.

“What’s happening?” Granny Goodness asks, the others in a surprising shock as to what they should do. Even Darkseid, usually so collected, had not been expecting this. “Kryptonian...what is the meaning…”.

  
“Waller! Waller please….please stop!”

He knew what they felt now.

What the countless numbers of men and women whom he’d killed felt right before they died. Fear. A fear of their own mortality and what awaited them beyond the veil of the living. He now turns to Darkseid, desperate for a way out of this. “She put a bomb in me. I didn’t think she’d use me to deton…”.

At that moment the bomb explodes, and with it? So does Superman. A veritable rain of gore and blood covers the god of Apokolips and his most loyal acolytes, but they barely have time to register such a fact.

The explosion was large. Large enough to trigger to hellspores. 

Darkseid turns, watching as one by one they begin to ignite, and in a moment the combined force of millions of the weapons, designed by him to destroy entire planets with a single Hellspore, go off. 

For the first time in a very long while, a god has died.

Apokolips explodes in a fiery explosion that possibly had not been seen since the very dawn of creation, every single piece of the planet atomized so that not even a single pebble would be left to show that it had even existed. 

Soon, all that is left is empty space where a planet, dedicated to war and pain, had once been, not even the flames left as there was nothing left to burn. 

The untivere known universe, was no much safer for it.

Two tyrants. One bomb.

**_Monarch Theater_ **

Batman punches one of the Dollotrons, something that none of them had been prepared for upon entering the derelict movie theater. The horrifying creature, no doubt twisted and perverted by Professor Pyg, squealed in pain as some of the sutures and stitches that had been sewn into its face opened up.

He regretted it, but he knew they had no choice.

They had to save Renee. 

“Do not let them reach….gnrrrrrrr...the surgery room!” Pyg shouts from the second floor, directly his makeshift army as they swarmed down the stairs and hurled themselves at the three vigilantes. The Dollotrons were horrifying in appearance, and as far as Bruce knew, designed that way. Each had red hair and was aesthetically female as each wore a pink dress. Their faces were either a mass of stitches of healed scars, depending upon at which point they had been converted to their new nefarious purposes.

“Batwoman! Stay with Katana!” he shouts, reaching for his batclaw and aiming it at the wooden bannister that lined the second floor. He hated leaving the two women behind, especially his wife, but they were running out of time.

Pyg sensed that he was now the main target of Batman’s rage, and he wisely backs up, letting his former position be covered by more Dollotrons which forced their way out of a large door to his rear. Bruce grunted as he soared upwards through the air, knowing he’d have to fight through even more of these once innocent people.

Who were they? He didn’t know, and at this point it was probable that they’d never find out. The homeless were still a large part of Gotham City and probably always would be.    
  
He launches over the bannister and rolls, kicking out the legs of two nearby dollotrons and sending them careening to the floor as he then throws himself forward to punch at one who was trying to use a knife on him. 

While they were numerous, and undoubtedly a threat, they weren’t hard to beat. Even now he was rushing forward through the still open door that Pyg had escaped through. He felt the memories rush back to him, even now, though it had started naturally when they’d pulled up to the theater. 

He blocked them out. 

‘Not now’.

He crashes through the door and expects to see more Dollotrons, but is surprised, though not pleasantly, when all he sees is a large empty room where seating used to be. This was one of the viewing rooms, and it had been converted to Pyg’s purposes.

A noise draws his attention to the center of the room where he sees Renee resting on the gurney, still naked, and still staring at the screen. Her eyes were blood shot and dry, and her face was haggard, devoid of all emotion. 

“Renee”.

He shouts and makes a move towards her, when a dark shape barrels out at him and he feels a searing pain in his upper arm where Pyg managed to get the drop on him and use his knife. “YOU WILL NOT TOUCH MY BRIDE GNNRNRRRR NNGGRRR!”

Batman falls to the ground, but the forward motion of the villain drags him down atop the vigilante, effectively evening the fight and throwing out any advantage that he might’ve had at the beginning of his assault.

Bruce throws a punch directly into the man’s face, which breaks his nose but doesn’t bring him down for the count. It buys him some time though and his focus is drawn to the television as Pyg moves off of him and holds his damaged facial feature.

“No...no...no” he moans, muttering to himself and letting out little nasally grunts. “Not perfect...not perfect”. Bruce had a lot to say to the man on the subject of him “not being perfect” but instead he reaches into his belt and retracts a batarang, tossing it at the television.

It shatters as the steel object buries itself within it, effectively freeing Renee from the focal point of her brainwashing. She wasn’t out of the woods yet though. She still had to be rescued and taken to a medical facility. Undoubtedly she’d need mental help.

“NO! NO! MY BRIDE! GNNNRRR! GNRRRR!”

Pyg was back at it, and apparently his rage was feeding him even more now as he lunged at Bruce with the knife once more. With his nose caved in he’d indeed come to resemble a pig much more. He grunted and squealed as he enters into yet another tugging match with Batman. 

The knife wound was starting to hurt, and Bruce was beginning to worry that he wouldn’t be able to actually beat the man whose strength was much more than expected. “You ruined my nose! You...gnnnnrrrrr...will not take my bride!”

“Bango. I will!”

A force slams into the back of the crazed psychopath’s head and knocks him out instantly, something Bruce watches as the man’s eyes roll into the back of his head and then close in a daze as he falls off of the wounded vigilante. Katana was standing behind him, having hit the man across the back of her head with the flat of her sword. 

Bruce looks up at her and nods, and notices that it was clear how she was torn between helping her wounded Shogun and running to her fiancee. 

“Go”.

He’d made the decision for her, and he slowly gets to his feet, his hand going to the massive gash opened by Pyg’s knife attack. Katana rushes over towards Renee and gently works on removing the contraptions from her eyes. “Renee, Renee” the worried samurai calls out, lightly patting the woman’s face. “Mewosamasu. Please”. 

The tears were leaking out over her mask’s eye slits and Bruce...he felt numb. “Batman!”.

Harleen’s worried voice breaks into his thoughts, and he turns to see her, worriedly looking over him. “I’m fine”. She takes one look at his arm and firmly grips it in her hand, shaking her head to the negative to let him know that she definitely didn’t believe him.

He notices that she too is hurt however, and his hands move out to her side where the fabric of her suit was torn and a wound was present. “I’m fine”.

“Hmm”.

She wants to smile, finding the situation to be just one of those strange things that happened when you were a vigilante married to another vigilante. She turns to Tatsu, watching as she uses her sword to free the unconscious commissioner from her bonds. “Renee, wake up...wake up”.

“Katana” Harleen interjects, moving forward and stopping when the pain in her side becomes too much. Bruce is there to support her, the two bats leaning on one another. “She’s unconscious...but she’s okay”.

The word “physically” was left out, and Harleen thought it prudent that she indeed did so. It wasn’t known what kind of mental damage had been done to the naked woman, but whatever it was? It would take time to heal. 

Tatsu doesn’t seem to be listening, though it was clear that she heard. The woman removes her jacket, leaving her in nothing more than her white tank top, and drapes it over the commissioner, covering her nudity. She then scoops her up into her arms, carrying her bridal style out of the makeshift surgery and down the stairs, rushing down them to get the woman to medical attention.

They knew said medical attention had arrived as the blaring of sirens could be heard through the thin wooden walls of the theater. Neither minded the fact that Katana had rushed out of there. She was probably still rightfully angry with them for not informing her of Renee’s disappearance and obviously being way too preoccupied with getting her help now that she was “safe”.

Harleen lets go of Bruce for one moment and stumbles over towards the prone Pyg, using a zip tie to bind his hands for pickup. He was out cold, and utterly damaged by his fight with the caped crusader. Not that he cared.

“We...unnnggg…”.

“Harleen…”.

They were alone now, and he didn’t mind calling her by name. He just...he needed something. Something he himself wasn’t fully aware of. This place, this moment? With her? It all felt too encompassing, and as he watches the woman he’d come to love so much tie up the final foe they’d face...he knew it was over.

“What?”

He just looks towards the door, knowing that there was nothing that really could be said. She understood though, and simply advanced back upon him, offering him her shoulder once again. “Nothing”.

“Puddin’” she begins. “Talk to me”.

They begin to move, using one another for support as their bodies, injured too many times over at this point, seemed to catch up on them. They advance out of the surgery and into the second floor balcony, shambling towards the stairs. “It’s over”.

He meant more than the situation concerning the serial killer of course. “I know” Harleen says. “We did good didn’t we?” He felt like they’d had this conversation before, but now? Well, it was being had right on the precipice. They slowly begin to descend the stairs together, focused on the open door that led out into the night and the waiting GCPD.

“Yes. I...I couldn’t have done it without you”.

“Yes you could’ve”.

They take each step one at a time, careful to avoid the knocked out Dollotrons and to keep Harleen from being hurt anymore. She practically winced with each step, and her hand was slightly bloodied from holding her side.

“No...not like this. Not with compassion and trust….”.

“Batman...Bruce….you don’t give yourself enough credit”.

He just smiles at her, a uncharacteristic sight to behold while he was wearing the cowl. “You complete me Batwoman”.    
  
That was the nail in the coffin for all of this. They needed one another still, two pieces to the same whole. Yin and Yang in a cosmic sort of way. They’d continue needing each other, even after the cowl’s came off, and that was a comfort to the both of them.

They finally reach the first floor landing and work on making their way towards the exit of the Monarch theater. Their feet carry them a little quicker this time, both eager to finish this as quickly as they can.

They had the rest of their lives now.

It was done.

**_Church of St. Dumas, Underground Chamber_ **

“Father...you called me so. Sounded important. What’s?”

“Shhh” Jason Blood says, gesturing for the young man to be quiet and simply follow him. Jason knew, by putting all of these facts before him together, that something was up. Something important. He decides to follow his orders, and simply walks after the man as he leads the two into the lower echelons of the Order’s base of operations.

“Did she say yes?”

“What?”

“Jenny” the man says as they make their way down the stairs. “Did she agree to be your wife?”

The question came out of left field, and it seemed so out of tune with what felt like a somber occasion. But still, he’d answer the man. “Ohh, yeah, yeah. She said yes”.

“Champagne glass?”

“How the hell did you…”.

“Swearing Jason. Also, you’re a very classical man. I figured that would be the way you’d do it. Now...be quiet for now”. 

They finally enter into the ceremonial chamber, and Jason sees that the remaining members of the order were present. All were aged and a few had passed in the last six years, though Grandmaster Valley was still alive. 

“Ahh yes...Jason. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you for heeding my summons”.

Jason bows respectfully, showing proper deference to the man who led their order. His eyes were focused on one thing though. The sarcophagus that held the Suit of Sorrows.

“Rise Jason”.

He stands up straight and looks the man directly in the eyes, no longer fearful to meet his gaze. He knew what was happening now, and strangely enough he felt greater trepidation and fear than when he was going to propose to Jenny. 

The other order members rise and draw their swords, pointing them down at the young man while Jason Blood stays back, watching the proceedings with an intense fervor that spoke of the stakes he held in this.

“Jason Wayne of Gotham. Do you swear to uphold the principles of our order, and all that for which we stand and believe? Do you promise to render service to your faith, church and to your God, with only the intent to give glory to all three in place of yourself?”

“I do”.

“Do you renounce the wickedness of Satan and his works?”

“I do”.

“Do you believe in the power of redemption through our Lord Jesus Christ, the lamb given to wash away the sins of the world?”

“I do”.

His heart was racing as he recited these vows, beating in his chest with such intensity that part of him was afraid that the blood pumping organ would crash right through his rib cage. The vows continue though, and he was rapidly coming to the most important one.

“Do you vow to take up this suit, one welded from the pain and suffering of your brothers and sisters who’ve worn it before, knowing full well that your blood and sweat shall stain it? That you too shall add a bit of yourself to it so that the next body it falls upon will bear the weight of your legacy as well?”

“I do”.

The grandmaster smiles and draws his hand out, raising the sword he held into the air and causing the others to mimic his action. Slowly they bring it back down upon the young man, murmuring words in Latin. The sarcophagus is overtaken by a holy blue flame that burns bright, and the spirit of St. Dumas, whom Jason had not seen since first coming to this place, reappears astride his horse. 

He points down at the container and says nothing, his lack of words in and of themselves communicating what needed to be said. Jason moves forward and disregards the flames to reach into the container and begin removing the armor. 

He first dons the robe which was white in color and had a red cross, indicative of the order’s Templar origins. As soon as that is secured to his person, he dons the steel gauntlets and boots, armoring himself up in the same way as the knights of old.

Chainmail and greaves complete the suit, and all that is left now is the sword of St. Dumas he kept stored within, and the helm. 

The steel helm would cover his face in a plate of steel, leaving only two slits for his eyes to see out of. Atop would be a steel crown upon which he could draw or retract the white hood sewn into the back of the robe over.    
  
He looks at the helm for a moment, reflecting on the path that took him here. An orphan that was taken in as a son. A hero, cast to the side for his own protection. Now? A holy guardian, meant to bring the city of Gotham back to the Lord. 

Without waiting another moment he places it over his head and settles into how it feels. He turns to Father Blood who watches as the eye slits are engulfed in flame, making him resemble the spirit behind him. The demon within causes him to recoil in fear, and for a split second Etrigan is revealed in the shadow behind him, cast by the ambient light of the flaming coffin.

Jason reaches in and takes the blade, completing the ensemble. 

He then raises it into the air, upon which the spirit begins to dissipate into a fine mist which is sucked into the sword itself. When this is over, the flames dissipate from the coffin, though not from Jason’s sword nor his helm.

He turns to the grandmaster and falls to one knee, not saying a word. He couldn’t. The power within him was too great, too strong to speak of. The spirit of St. Dumas was within him.

“I christen thee Azrael, Jason” Valley says, the others moving to their knee slowly to give their due respect to the man who had taken up their cause. “Go forth and do thine Lord’s work. Save this city. Save souls. Turn them away from what is wrong and back to what is good. This prosperity...it hardens men’s hearts to truth and wrong, and it shall not last Azrael. When it collapses, you must be there, a new symbol of hope though I feel not the only one”.

Jason rises and nods, speaking in a very different, much deeper voice. “It will be done grandmaster. I will not fail”.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is a little shorter, and for that I'm sorry. i usually do twenty pages a chapter and this one is only sixteen. Please forgive me for that. I'm just trying to get into the right head space again. A major dissapointment has happened for me lately that just...well, I don't wanna give excuses. Anyways. Something interesting happens. Also, for those wondering about a Superman/Konn'r matchup, there will be one in the future. Yes. I know Kal is dead. Yes...I know. He blew up with Apokolips. Don't worry it'll be fun.

**_Gotham General Hospital_ **

Tatsu hadn’t moved from her side the entire time she’d been there, taking to sitting by her bed and just stroking her hand with her thumb. Sometimes she’d stand up and gently press a kiss to the sleeping woman’s forehead, brushing through her hair and whispering sweet nothings into her ear.

Harvey Bullock watched all of this with a clinical detachedness from the door, though on the inside he himself was very worried.

Montoya would recover...physically.

As for mentally? 

Nobody was sure right at this moment what Pyg had even really done to her, let alone if she’d get better from it. For now? He had been quickly promoted to interim commissioner until Renee got better. If she didn’t get better? Well, he’d cross that bridge when he got to it.

For now though, he knew that he’d done enough standing around and that it was time for him to go in, face his fears, and comfort the woman and vigilante who’d surprisingly become a close friend. “Tatsu...hey...she’s gonna get better”.

The dark haired woman doesn’t respond, though she lets him rest his hand upon her shoulder in comfort. He nods to himself and then turns to another important matter. “Hey uhh...you’re still tight with the bats?”

He didn’t know why, but he expected Tatsu to resent the bats for the part they played in Montoya’s kidnapping though some of that blame, in fact most of it, could probably more accurately be laid at Harvey Dent’s feet.

‘No...no’ he thinks to himself, letting the momentary anger he felt at the mayor dissipate. ‘Ain’t his fault. He was looking out for Renee just the same as everyone else’. Harvey was many things, and fair was one thing he always tried to be. 

“Hai”.

“I uhh….look….they….they made a mistake”.

“I do not hate them either Harvey” she says, surprising the man just as much as his own quick forgiveness of the mayor had. “Bango...they are brave senshi, heroes, but they are still human. Fallible. They make mistakes”.

She looks back at her sleeping lover and smiles.

“We all have”.

She didn’t know why but she remembered the day that Renee had forgotten her birthday. Normally she wouldn’t have cared but for some reason? It stung at the time and she’d been angry with the woman, refusing to speak with her for half a day. Renee came home with flowers and pizza, trying to apologize.

Eventually it worked, and it was funny to the samurai how that would come to her mind now. 

It was a comforting thought though, and she was glad to have had it. Harvey knew that in the end, the only one who could be accurately blamed for what had happened to Renee was Professor Pyg, who was as of this moment sitting down at the GCPD lockup, waiting to be processed for his day at court. 

“Nnnrrrr...hnnn”.

“Renee?” Tatsu says suddenly, moving up again as the woman makes a noise. “Tatsu?” she asks back tiredly. “Hai Watashi no ai...it’s me”.

Her eyes flitter open slowly, and eventually land upon the woman who looks down at her. Tatsu was gently running her fingers up and down her cheek, a tear running down from her eye. Renee was shocked by that as the woman’s tears were a rarity. 

“You...okay?” she wheezes out through the oxygen mask she tries to remove. Tatsu stops her though, and Harvey joins in by moving to her opposite side. “Hey, hey, easy commish. Easy. Ain’t her ya gotta worry about right now”.

“Renee, hai, I am fine...how do you feel?”

“Like I got hit by a bus….and...everything is in gray”.

That seemed to surprise the two though they remembered the Batman’s report that she had been forced to watch a black and white movie on repeat while the strange, home grown brand of LSD flowed through her veins.

They could hardly imagine what kind of effect the two things had had on her.

“It’ll be fine Montoya. It’ll return to normal soon enough”. Renee gives a half hearted smile at the detective before turning back to her fiancee and reaching out feebly with her hand. Tatsu picks up on it instantly and grips it within her digits, squeezing lightly. 

“We...we have to talk”.

It was often joked about, how a man didn’t ever want to hear those words from a woman, but Tatsu found that she didn’t want to hear those words from her woman either. ‘Perhaps those words are just frightening regardless of who the woman says them too’.

“Renee...you are weak. Nokori. Rest”.

She tries to push the woman back onto the bed, wanting to reposition the pillow so that the woman was more comfortable but Renee wasn’t having it, and she reaches up to grasp Tatsu’s arm. “No...we...we need to talk”.

“Okay”.

Renee goes silent for a minute but continues to look up at the woman she loved. “I love you”. Tatsu smiles at that and turns her head to the side while blushing. “Kiss me? Please?”

“Renee you need the oxygen mask...just for a little while longer” Harvey interjects, earning a scathing glare from the woman in the bed. “Alright, alright...hey. Uhh...I’ll step out” he adds, knowing that most likely the women wanted privacy as well. “But eh...right outside if you need me”.

With that the large detective is gone, indeed taking up a post outside of the hospital room, leaving the lovers alone. Tatsu, remembering Renee’s wish, slowly removes the mask, revealing that she could breath just fine, as she thought, but that the hospital was being overly cautious. 

The samurai carries the act out longer than necessary and gently brings her thumb up to the woman’s lips, caressing along them before leaning down herself to press her own against them. The kiss was soft and sweet, though it was delivered over the side of the hospital bed.

Renee reaches up and gently places her hand right behind Tatsu’s ear, her fingers stringing themselves through her dark locks of hair. The two separate for breath after a moment, though Tatsu remains close, their warm breath lightly mingling with each other’s and impacting against their lips.

“I just...I needed…”.

“What?” Tatsu asks, calming the woman who had begun to cry a bit at remembering her ordeal. “Shh...Renee. Watashi wa koko ni amasu”. Tatsu was hoping that her mere presence would be enough to keep the woman calm, but the tears kept coming as the commissioner begins to explain what happened.

  
“He...she...I...I don’t know...they tried to make me different. Perfect he called it…”.

  
“Renee, you are perfect..” Tatsu smiles. “For me”.

The words were quiet and carried with them the honest intensity of a freight train in their worth to the woman laying in the bed. She takes Tatsu’s hand again and tries to scoot over in the bed, worrying the Japanese woman. “Bango...Renee, don’t move”.

“Mierda!” she snaps back, a little angrily at being treated like a porcelain doll. “I’m not broken Tatsu...but...I need you. Por favor...hold me”.

The barely dried tears on Renee’s cheeks were more than enough to convince Tatsu, and slowly she climbs into the bed next to the woman, her arms going about her midsection as she cuddles the fragile, but not broken she would remember, woman close. 

“Tatsu…?”

“Hai?”

“I want us to get married”.

The Japanese woman scoots up a bit, looking directly into the woman’s eyes as she repositions herself on the bed. “And what makes you so eager now?” Tatsu asks, remembering how Renee had wanted to put it off for a while. Have a long engagement. That “long engagement” was now years in the running.

Renee shrugs though winces a bit at the movement until she’s soothed by Tatsu who gingerly pushes her back onto the bed. “It’s just…”.

Tatsu remains quiet, not wanting to say anything that would make the woman clam up. Undoubtedly this was going to be about what she experienced while under Professor Pyg’s brainwashing.

She’d have to tread carefully.

“I..I came close to losing you Tatsu” she explains. “I felt...I felt it slipping away”.

“What?”

“My love for you” the commissioner clarifies. “Like...like I was losing you and I couldn’t reach you through this massive void opening up between us and...all the reasons I was afraid before..commitment, the city...it...it didn’t matter. Not anymore. Not when I was so afraid of losing you. When...when…”.

Tatsu squeezes her hand and kisses her neck gently, cooing softly against her skin in the meantime. “I’m here. I’m not leaving”.

“Tatsu...I can’t...I can’t feel like I’m losing you. Not like that. Not when I love you so much...and I’m afraid that if I don’t get serious, and if I don’t stop being afraid then I’ll lose you”.

“My answer is yes. I’ve been ready to marry you for years Renee”.

That wasn’t the answer she was expecting, and it calmed her to hear it, most of her concerns going out the window with it. “We can get married as soon as you’re out of the hospital Renee. As soon as you’re healthy enough to walk down the aisle”.

Tatsu could sense that there was more though, and it would help for Renee to get it out. “There’s something else isn’t there”.

Renee nods, though the fear of saying it, whatever it was, was visible in her eyes. 

“Well…” Tatsu says. “You should tell me”.

“I...I want us...I want us to have a baby”.

Now it was Tatsu’s turn to be taken aback, as the last thing she’d expected was that bombshell to be dropped. “Watashi...how…..ohh”. It occurs to her at the last possible moment that there was an...other than natural way to do it. Renee nods along, grateful that Tatsu understood without having to explain it herself, especially in her weakened state.

“Hai...I think so yes”.

“Don’t just say yes because you want to appease me Tatsu” Renee warns. “If you don’t…”.

“Bango, bango...I’ve always wanted to Renee, but...we would have to find someone we trust for the turkey baster deposit”.

The Hispanic woman begins to chuckle, the line of her mouth twisting at first before it becomes a full on laugh, the hilarity of her strait laced Japanese lover saying something so openly that others might find embarrassing. 

“Hmmph…”.

Tatsu blushes profusely before smiling lightly herself, joining in on the laughter though at a much more reserved pace and tone than her hospitalized girlfriend was. Slowly though, Renee brings herself back down and calms, looking up at the ceiling. “We...we have friends we can ask”.

Tatsu looks up at her askance. 

“You mean…?”

The question was asked without saying, the woman being able to discern her intentions. “Uhhm”.

“I thought you hadn’t forgiven them”.

Renee looks up and shakes her head. “Part of me never will” she says honestly. “But...they’ve saved this city numerous times, saved my life now and…..I can’t….things happen...I don’t know how to explain it” she admits. “Part of me believes that….well, something is telling me that Barbara wanted that life and maybe, maybe….I don’t believe that Harleen or Bruce, look...I know they didn’t want her to die, and I know they’d never have done something intentional but…”.

Tatsu had the words that were failing the woman at that moment, knowing what she truly wanted to say. “It is senso Renee...war. You have lost officers bango? Men and women you cared deeply for?”

“Si”.

“I have too” Tasu admits. “Great victory cannot come without great sacrifice and often times we are left to ask ourselves if the sacrifice we had to make was worth it to win the tatakai. But these things….they are not up to us. Which soldiers live, or die. Senshi..we all are”.

“I hate when you get all mystical on me you know that?” Renee teases, meaning the exact opposite. “Hai. Yes. I know”.

The two women, having decided two equally important and life changing decisions in a matter of moments, return to rest, both wanting to be out of the hospital as soon as possible. “Alright...so we have to ask Bruce, or Vic or even Harvey…” Renee says, not scratching off the mayor from her shortlist of possible donors. 

“Hmm...three noble men”.

“There is..one more thing chica” Renee says nervously.

“Hmm?”

“Which one of us is taking the turkey baster?”

**_Mayoral Mansion_ **

The picture frame shatters against the wall after Harvey so forcefully threw it, sending glass shards everywhere and even leaving parts imbedded into the wall, so fearsome was his strength. 

Or rather, the strength of his anger.

“YOU FUCKED UP!” he screams, slamming down against his desk and inadvertently hurting himself as his elbow slams up against the wood. He recoils in pain, though he felt that it was an aptly deserved one.

_ “All that happened to her happened because of you Harvey”. _

“Shut up!” 

He whirls around, seeking out the source of the inner voice he’d come to know so well over the years. “Shut up! Shut up! It’s not my fault! I wanted to protect her!”

_ “Funny way of showing it Harvey” _

The voice takes a moment to laugh, a tinkling chuckle that sends bolts of electricity up the mayor’s spine. It was mocking him. 

_ “Imagine how it might end up if you tried to save Pamela? Or Harleen? Or Harvey Jr? Not that it matters anyway. Heh heh...piece of shit! Worthless!” _

“I said shut up! Shut up!”

He whirls around once again, seeing his reflection in glass of the window, twisted as it was into a sick smile that promised violence. In his hand he held a rifle, though there certainly wasn’t one in his real hand.

_ “Come on Harvey” _ it pleads.  _ “You weren’t happy with all this anyways. Playing husband, father. For what? That ain’t no mark on the world. And saving Gotham? Pfft...saving Gotham don’t get you nothing. This city? It loves those that try to kill it. Why?” _

It doesn’t answer the question itself, wanting to leave Harvey to answer it for himself, something he wasn’t willing to do at this moment. He simply stared at his reflection, his hands palms down on the wooden desk below him. 

“You’re wrong” he pants, starting to cry for the first time since he was a child. “You’re wrong”.

_ “If I’m wrong then you’re wrong Harvey, and if you’re wrong which one of us is right?”  _ the voice mocks out. “I was trying...I’m trying...trying…”.

_ “And failing Harvey. And failing...you desperately wanna give up so just fucking do it. Stop being a pussy. Stop denying who you are!” _ the voice snarls.  _ “All these years Harvey, all of ‘em, I’ve been leaving you in the driver’s seat. Now? It’s my turn. It ain’t fair. Give me a turn at the wheel. I promise, you’ll have a lot more fun”. _

He looks towards a cabinet in the rear of the room, specifically towards the third drawer down from the left. He knew what was in that cabinet. He’d always kept it, just in case.

_ “Yeah...you’re thinkin’ it. You’re thinkin’ it, and thinkin’ is only step away from doin’. Come on Harvey. Let’s light this city up. It’s prime for the taking” _ the voice cajoles, and Harvey, seemingly in a daze, begins to move towards it. 

_ “That’s right. Remember all you did for ‘em...and remember how they’re gonna stab you in the back!” _

Harvey wasn’t listening, too focused on making his way to the drawer to listen to the voice inside of him. Slowly his hands reach out for the handle and he pulls it out, hearing the sound of the wood impacting against the sides while the rollers move within their steel tracks.

There was only one further step to take.

The case was right there in front of him, tantalizingly close and sealed behind a combination lock.

_ “Come on...go right down to that little bitch’s office”  _ the voice begs, practically salivating at the thought of doing just that. “She’s going to take it all from me…”.

_ “Yeah Harvey...she is, and she’s gonna laugh about it. You’re not going to let her make a fool out of you are you?” _

His fingers were moving over the lock, turning the dials to the desired numbers. With each one the lock gets closer and closer to being undone, and the gun gets closer and closer to being out in the open in his hands.

Part of him knew that as soon as it was there, it wouldn’t go back in, not without being used.

Like an explosive Jack in the box, there was no way to retract it when it was sprung. This was it. He was finally going to let it all out. No more holding back. No more hiding. He was finally going to be who he really was.

He was about to click open the case when a noise from behind him startles him. He whirls about, ready to defend himself, though the gun remains within the safety box. “YOU WANNA SNEAK UP ON ME FU…”.

His words fail him as he turns to see Harvey jr. and Harleen standing there, amidst the wreckage of his office, worry and fear on their faces as they gaze up at their father whose own visage was twisted in hatred.

“Dad….are you okay?” little Harvey asks worriedly, clinging to his sister who looks on her father even more fearfully. He doesn’t understand why, but they were cowering in fear of him, and he looks down at himself and is shocked by what he saw. 

The gun wasn’t in the safety box like he’d thought. 

It was in his hand.

He begins to shake and the gun falls away from his hands onto the ground. “I...I….I blacked...no...I left it…”.

He’d pointed a gun at his kids.

His children.

Slowly he falls to his knees, not caring as the glass shards cut into his knees and tear his suit. Slowly his hands move up to his face, and the tears fall much more freely now at the realization that he’d almost killed two of the most important things in his life.

_ “No! No! Stop! Don’t let them hold you back dumbas...what...what’s happening too...me….”. _

The voice begins to dissipate completely and Harvey only feels his pain now. He was letting loose, but in a much different way than he’d imagined. He feels two weights settle upon his body and he knows that it is Harleen and Harvey.

“Daddy...what’s wrong?”

He couldn’t stand to hear his daughter or son cry, and all he can do was hold them close, wrapping his arms about them and holding them close. “It’s okay sweetie...I’m...I’m so sorry….I…”.

He knew it now. He needed help. Something he hadn’t been willing to admit before. Sure he had Pam and the kids, and they’d kept him strong but now? He needed to make sure to mend the chinks in the armor so to speak.

So he could continue protecting them.

And if he was breaking like this? Well...he knew that it couldn’t go on.

Slowly he backs them up to smile gently and tearfully at each of them. “Okay...let’s get you down to Maria” he says, speaking about his assistant. “And then we’ll...we’ll call mommy. Or she will….”.

“What are you going to do dad?” Harleen asks while a still lightly crying Harvey jr. suckles his thumb in fear, a habit they hadn’t been able to break him out of for a very long time. “I’m...I’m going to call the police sweetie”.

“Why!?” she asks, her fear obvious. It was funny, he thinks. How the gulf that had opened up between them was suddenly being mended by such an emergency. It also broke his heart though. Slowly he reaches down and brushes his hand through her hair. 

“Daddy’s sick sweetie….and I need help”.

It felt good, oddly enough. To say those words aloud. He’d always thought that admitting them would make him weak but in fact? He felt a bit stronger now that he wasn’t shackled to the idea of having to hide it.

Still, he felt like a failure. A man who cracked under pressure. ‘Ohh god...Pam...what’s she going to think...there’s so much I haven’t told her’.

That didn’t matter right now.    
  
What mattered was making sure his children were safe and he was where he couldn’t hurt anybody else. 

He wasn’t so far gone yet that his priorities were askew. 

**_The Batcave_ **

He hangs up the suit with an air of finality, placing it in a display case in which it rarely sat for long, both bats preferring to leave them where they would be much more easily accessible for quick suiting up.

  
But now? 

Now was different.

He, Harleen, Alfred and Elise, and Vic, Dinah and Pamela were in the cave, everyone else being made aware of their plans to give up the cowl. Harleen was right beside him, smiling as she placed her suit upon the hook, reaching a tentative hand to brush out over the shoulder.

“Well...it was fun” she says to herself aloud, though the rest of the room hears it as well. “Do you remember the first suit you wore?” Bruce teases.

  
“Ohh jeez...don’t remind me. The thing was barely a motorcycle suit, let alone a kickass vigilante one piece”. She continues to look at the suit longingly, her mind going back over the memories attached to it. 

Long ago, she’d dreamed of putting up the suit, though in a different manner. It wouldn’t be “put up” so to say. More like, handed off. Barbara would have taken over as Batwoman, right alongside Jason as Batman.

That was back when she was much more naive than she was today. 

It filled her heart with sorrow to see it sit empty, but not as much as seeing Bruce’s suit next to hers. The cowl was still menacing, and she chuckles at the thought of the man who was under that cowl also playing with their son and daughters. 

‘He’d go from punching out bad guys to being a horsey for the twins to ride’ she muses, leaning into the man and hugging him tight. “Harleen...this isn’t the end. It’s a beginning”.

“I know”.

Elise and Alfred gently grasp hands, finding this much harder to watch than they’d initially imagined it might be. When they first found out of their plans, they’d been ecstatic, but as they saw how hard it was for them to give up? Well, they didn’t regret their decision to push them towards retirement, but it still hurt.

What was odd to see however, were the three other suits lined up in the cases next to them. Vic’s blue overcoat and fedora, his mask as well, were all placed upon a mannequin right beside his wife’s biker jacket, fishnets, corset and the black domino mask she’d taken to wearing. 

  
At the far end was Pamela’s once piece. While she wasn’t a disguised hero, her green skin making it impossible, it was much more a symbolic measure of support that meant the world to her best friend. 

The redhead is hugged as well by his blonde bombshell wife, and both take comfort in one another as Bruce and Harleen were doing the same. “I...I feel like I’ve lost a big part of myself” Dinah admits as Vic rubs her back. 

“You’re still Black Canary to me Dinah, but you’re also more than that”.

“You don’t gotta butter me up sweetie” she jokes back. “We’re already married”.

  
“Who says saying I do was supposed to stop all that?” he says back, kissing her lips. “I still want to woo you everyday and well...now that we’re off the streets? Maybe we’ll have more time for each other”.

“Pfft...with four kids?” she asks, feeling his hands move up to her shoulders, hidden under her t shirt, and working out the kinks that were the quickest way to get her into a good mood. “Ohh...well...maybe we’ll have some time”.

“Hmm it’ll be nice to have some time with the kids too”.

Harleen was thinking the same thing, as indeed she knew that Mary and Martha would need special consideration. ‘Especially Mary’ she thinks worriedly. Martha was being trained 24/7, and being groomed to step into the role of Wonder Woman.    
  
She wanted to make sure that she took time out of her day to be a kid still, and enjoy the youth she had.

Mary? She wanted Mary to know that she was just as important and loved as her twin, fearful that even if she hid it well enough, she was her father’s daughter after all, that she resented her “less important” position. 

Not to mention how many nieces and nephews she had. 

She’d get to enjoy time with all of them. Focus on Arkham. Maybe even Bruce. As she looked at the man, and he looked back down at her, she couldn’t rightfully say that the spark had ever left their relationship. She was just as in love with him today as she was when she first told him in the very same cave they were standing in now.

No.

  
She lied.

She loved him even more now.

It would be nice to spend time as a normal family. Go to PTA meetings and be there on a much more constant basis. They knew they were good parents, but they were often absent. Now though? It would be different.

“Hmm…”.

“What puddin’?”

“Nothing, nothing just...imagining how different life is going to be now” he says aloud, giving her an opportunity for teasing. “Yeah, being a house husband is going to be a huge step for you” she jests, loving the look of shock that crosses his face.

Dinah joins in on the jibes and Vic remains silent. 

“What? No I’m…”.

“A philanthropist doesn’t count sweetie” she says, cutting him off at the past and nuzzling his nose. “I’m CEO of Wayne Enterprises” he objects, causing Harleen to go to a likely and very constant ally. “Alfred, does Lucius Fox run Wayne Enterprises mostly?”

“Ohhh she’s going in for the kill. She brought in Alfred” Dinah says, elbowing her husband in the side. “Well Miss Wayne...you know the answer is yes” the butler joins in, happy that the sad occasion was turning a happier shade. 

“Ahh, and does Bruce actually do anything non Batman related at the company?”

“Well...rarely…” the butler hems and haws, not wanting to firmly take a side against the man whom he considered a son. 

Bruce was frowning now, rolling his eyes. Harleen keeps pressing her attack though, refusing to let up. “And mama? Do I not work my butt off at the asylum?”

“Ohh no fair Harley…” Bruce says, rolling his eyes and pulling her back into his chest by wrapping his arms tightly about her waist. “You can’t have both of them against me”.

“That you did sweetie. That you do” Elise supplies, the queen of the Amazons turning the tide.

“Well that settles it”.

Harleen turns her head over her shoulder and reaches up to the man, lightly bopping him on the nose with her pointer. “Mama brings home the bacon and you? Well...you’re out of the tights now so you should probably get into the apron”.

“Hmm...so I’m baking brownies and handling PTA meetings now hmm?” he asks, getting into the joke. “Yup!”. Harley loudly pops the p of the word, finding all of this rather hilarious. “Well...there are worse things that can happen”.

Pamela, up until this point, had remained quiet, taking in the rather touching moment that the bat clan decided that they could lay down their arms so to speak. However, the moment is interrupted by the ringing of her cellphone. 

She quickly takes it out and opens it, seeing that it was from her husband’s assistant Maria.

“Hello Maria...wait...what? Ohh god...are they okay? Yes? Thank god. Is Harvey...ohh...ohh...shit...I’ll be right there!”.

With that she hangs up the phone and begins to rush towards the exit, not stopping to explain until the others, at least those spry enough to move quite so quickly, are after her. “Pam! Pam! What’s going on?” Harleen shouts out, causing the green skinned woman in a panic to finally give some sort of answer.

“Harvey...he’s...we...he just needs our help!”

That was enough for the group, and they rush out knowing that no matter what, in costume or not, Gotham would always need them in some capacity.

For now though, the cave is left empty, especially after Alfred and Elise make it through the grandfather clock entrance and close it behind them. Only the occasional sound of water dripping or the flight of a random bat interrupts the quiet.

The display cases stand there, defiantly showcasing the suits of the heroes who’d been there for Gotham well before the Justice Society, when it was considered hopeless. But to the side, stand two more displays with suits that represented something that was from a lost time.

The display cases had always been set off, separate from the rest though they themselves were close together, indicative of who they’d belonged too before.

The Robin costumes.

The one belonging to Barbara that had the indicative briefs style bottoms, while the other having pants, both green in color.

They stood there, reminders of what this life could cost, indeed of the greatest cost. But soon, very soon, they would come to represent a past that was at war with the present. An ideal represented, and one corrupted.

The battle of good and evil, and for the soul of Gotham would be played out by the two individuals who’d wore these suits. Victory was not guaranteed to either of them. Not yet. Not now. 

But many stands would have to be made. Regardless, the city would now be the domain of these two figures, it’s future decided and molded by what they would do with their power. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just wanted to ask, are you guys okay with this story being a little shorter than the others? I'm just not too sure of how long I wanna make it. Input would be nice. Do you feel that it's moving along at a good pace?

**_Gotham Central Bank_ **

“Come on you mooks! Get those fucking bags loaded!” Scarface shouts, being held up up Shauna’s arm, allowing the wooden dummy to swing back and forth and provide an intimidating presence over the goons within its vicinity.

“We’re moving boss, we’re moving” one of the men says, trying to direct his words towards the dummy and not Shauna as to do otherwise would lead to tongue lashing, or worse. 

“Well you ain’t moving quick enough” Scarface fires back, gesturing for the man to continue hefting the bag over towards the back of the van. He does as he’s bid, lugging the cash filled sack and throwing it into their escape vehicle.

“We don’t got all night. The League may be busy elsewhere, but we still got our problems to deal with here”.

Scarface, nor his puppeteer, was aware of being watched in the night. There was that creeping dread of course, as the bat family was always something that every criminal in Gotham feared. They didn’t know that said family had essentially given up their masks though.

No. 

They had to deal with someone quite new to them, an unknown quality.

They were going to meet him soon though, and Jason propels himself off of the ledge of the building, using a borrowed and modified grappling hook to catch on the edge and lessen the velocity of his fall. He lands atop the van, denting it and making a loud banging noise as the steel bends inward.

He has attracted the attention of the entire gang, who now were busy turning their guns upon him. Even Scarface held a mini Thomspon machine gun in his hands. The young man wasn’t sure if it was real, but something told him, that ingrained training from Bruce and Harleen, that until he knew for sure that it wasn’t that he should continue to treat it as such.

He begins to stand, moving up slowly from his kneeling position and looking down upon them.

“Who the hell are you? And what the hell are ya doin’ here? You ain’t one of the bats”.

Jason turns to address the dummy, his mind fixated on taking out the girl holding him though. ‘Break her down, he’s out of the game’. His mother’s voice enters his mind, giving him a quick flashback to her lessons on the criminally insane and how to fight against them.

‘Classic multiple personality disorder, manifesting itself through the dummy’ he thinks.

_ “Her sins are great”  _ Dumas whispers in his ear.  _ “Even if she committed them under the guise of another, these are the desires of her heart. She cannot escape justice”. _

His eyes narrow under the helm, and he fixes everyone around with a glare that was worthy of the Batman, though the effect was somewhat magnified by how his eyes were ablaze with holy flame. 

“I am Azrael” he says firmly. “This city’s confessor. You have a chance”.

He knew that this was going to remain part of who he was. He had to give them a chance. He couldn’t let himself become jaded and hard, not like Bruce almost had. He was God’s representative here in Gotham. His warrior. He had to offer redemption and forgiveness, as well as vengeance and a firm hand.

“A chance for what?” Scarface asks mockingly. “Play dungeons and dragons with you? Ya freak!”

This draws the laughter of his assembled gang, and it was becoming clear, though he had no initial doubts beforehand, that his chance would not be taken. As the laughter continues he reaches down to his side and retracts the sword from its sheathe, pulling it out and showcasing it to the slowly sobering robbers.

The sword then ignites into vibrant flame, bursting outwards so far that it almost reaches some of the men, almost as if the sword were seeking them out of its own accord.

That got quite a few of them to back up, and silenced any remaining laughter. He turns his glare once more on the slack jawed puppet, showcasing Shauna’s own confusion. “Does it look like I’m joking?”

The confusion doesn't last forever though, and Scarface orders his men into action.

“Hit this mook!”

Whatever was going on was bigger than just a run of the mill Gotham bank robbery. No. They would’ve given up by now if it was just something like that. They seemed genuinely fearful of failure, and that was a key fact that Jason picked up on.

‘Hey, they’re willing to take on a guy that announced himself with a flaming sword. That takes some sort of inspiration, or fear, and these guys don’t strike me as liking kitten calendars’. He leaves this thought at the back of his mind and tosses himself into the air, narrowly avoiding the hail of bullets the peppers through the now empty space where moments before he had been.

The first goon finds that his rifle was no better than warm butter against Jason’s sword as he slices through it and indeed melts the weapon in his hand. The man lets out a scream of pain as his palms are scorched by the molten steel, and he tries to back up, wanting to be away from his attacker as much as he could.

  
Such was not to be however, and Azrael steps forward to jam the butt of the handle of his sword into the man’s face, knocking him out cold.    
  
He was barely finished with this man when two others tried to get the drop on him, approaching from behind to draw a beat on his back. Jason simply swings his sword out, bringing the blinding flame with it and causing the two to not be able to see what they were shooting at.

They still fire though, hoping that the staccato bark of their automatic rifles would at least mean that something would die.

One of the bullets wheezes through the air, and slams into the puppet’s right hand, shattering the wood and causing Shauna to let out the first sound she’d made in a while. One of a strangled fear, coming out in a much more animalistic way. 

She wasn’t used to using her vocal chords for herself in such a way. After all, Mr. Scarface did all the talking for the two of them.

She falls to her knees and brings the puppet closer to her, inspecting his hand and basically mothering over him. “Forget me! Grab a pistol and ice this weirdo!”.

Shauna seemed to be pushed into action by his words, and she draws a pistol from her side holster hidden under her dress against her thigh. She draws a bead on the man’s back, watching as he used his free hand to brutally punch down one of her men, the other still gripping that flaming sword which was incentive enough to keep the others back.

  
She begins to shake though, herself not having used a gun and indeed only having it as a last resort. 

“What are you waiting for you dumb broad? Shoot him!” Scarface shouts, only increasing her nervousness as her hand shakes even more.

It was largely an academic question after that though, as Jason had noticed the duo conspiring to kill him while his back was turned, having dealt with as many of the guards as possible. ‘Stupid...you dropped your guard’.

He doesn’t take too long to rebuke himself though, and he throws himself forward into what was going to be yet another fight. He keeps his form low and draws the cloak about him, remembering why Bruce wore a cape from the first night on.

_ “Confuse them. Make yourself seem bigger than you actually are. Criminals are cowardly. They like to pick on those who are weaker than them, so, let them know that you’re a whole lot stronger than they are”. _

He was glad for it now, as the ambiguous shape charging at Shauna threw her off quite a bit. She manages to squeeze the trigger, though the bullet goes wide and instead hits one of the open doors of the van.

“You idiot! Aim! Aim!”.

She tries again and lets off a cluster of three rounds that are less effective at hitting the charging vigilante than her first one had been. They slam into the pavement around Jason’s feet, but provide little in the way of actual deterrents. 

He was close now, and she has time to try and take one final bead on the man, but not enough to prevent him from grasping the pistol and roughly pushing it to the side. She squeezes the trigger and the round harmlessly moves off into the night, ending her chances of stopping the man.

  
He glares at her, and Shauna herself loses all heart and sinks to her knees again, quivering and crying in fear. Scarface though, he was still trying to rouse her. “Get up ya mook! Fight ‘em! Fight!”.

Jason silences the puppets, or rather Shauna’s other personality’s, attempt at continuing the fight. He sheathes his sword at his side, hiding it away once again, and reaches out to grasp the puppet, yanking it away from the sobbing woman.

“Mr. Scarface!” she screams, struggling against the man’s grip upon her, surprisingly being able to keep her steady with one hand. He looks at the puppet curiously, wondering what he should do. ‘What would mom do?’ he asks himself, trying to put himself in his mother’s shoes, something that was hard to do without the years of medical training that she had and that he lacked.

‘Break her focus...which is the puppet. Without her focus she’ll be forced to draw in on herself..maybe come to terms with the two differing psyches within her...or she’ll go insane’.

The woman was struggling more now than she had during the fight, desperately trying to get back to the puppet. “Please! Please! Give me him back! I promise we surrender! I promise!”.

She reminded him of a little girl who had lost her toy, and he couldn’t bring himself to be cruel. No. Not on his first major fight as Azrael. “Do you yield?”

“I do! We do! I promise! I’ll even tie his hands! I promise!”

“Don’t...don’t give up you idiot!”

“I don’t have a choice Mr. Scarface!” she shouts back, tears streaming down her face. “Please, I’ll tie him up too. We surrender”. The puppet was surprisingly quiet and Jason, hoping he wasn’t making a mistake by being too soft, slowly hands the wooden doll back. “Here”. He quickly supplies a zip tie, another throwback to his time spent as one of Batman’s sidekicks, and hands it to the woman, praying that he wasn’t going to be made a fool off. 

Shauna takes the zip tie and Scarface in her hands and works about tying him up, fixing his hands, one damaged and practically obliterated, behind him. “Hey! What are ya doin...ow….that hurt you crazy dame!”

“I’m sorry Mr. Scarface” she cries out. “Just, let’s do what he says. He’s scary!”

“I coulda taken him!”

“I know! I know...ohh I’m so sorry Mr. Scarface. I’m just glad you’re okay” she says while holding the puppet close to her chest, wrapping her arms about him and hugging him tight. “Ey, enough a’ that. Let me go...ahhh...alright...whatever. Love ya too ya screwy dame”.

He could piece together more and more of what was going on with this woman, and he knew that it was more than just a split personality. ‘Probably lots of trauma. Feelings of inadequacy? If she has to try and get love from a doll…”.

_ “Not all are led to sin through malice or hate young Jason”  _ Dumas whispers back.  _ “But all have sin, and all must confront it. You fight sin through love, true love, a love that brokers no space for allowing others to fall into the darkness. What is love young knight?” _

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth” Jason says, remembering the exact space in the bible where he’d read that verse. “1st Corinthians 13”.

Shauna hears him and looks up at him curiously, wondering why he was speaking to her with something from the bible, not realizing that he wasn’t speaking to her. Still, this provides an opportunity.

He lowers himself to his knee, now eye to eye with the girl. “What is your name?”

She feels compelled to answer him for some reason. 

“S...Shauna….”.

“Don’t tell him nothing you mook!” Scarface seethes. “That can be used in a court of law”.

Jason ignores the little man, knowing that he had to reach Shauna as herself, though the puppet represented all her worst qualities. He had to have faith that something better was inside her though. “Listen to what I said, and...ruminate on love. You are capable of it. Reach within you, and sin no more”.

The woman hangs on his words, and for once, Scarface is silent. It would undoubtedly take some work, but Jason was hopeful that Harleen would finish the work he started.

“Proselytizing to my hired help?”

The voice was cocky but muffled, no, not muffled, disguised. He turns to see a woman, for the curvature of her hips and body give that away, standing in the street behind him, next to the van.

“Hello” she continues, advancing forward a few feet and stopping. She was clad in purple armor, her face hidden behind a plate mask with two eye slits.

Shauna takes this opportunity to rush up and away, fearful of what the woman whom she was supposed to be working for would do to her and her boss. 

She seems less than interested in the Ventriloquist though, and instead continues to focus on Azrael. “I watched you work” she says, beginning to circle him. “I was impressed. Still….could’ve been better”.

“How?” Jason asks, curious despite himself.

“You left them alive” she says as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Tomorrow, they’ll all get up and go right back to business as usual. Robberies, rapes, murders. You could preempt that”.

“That’s not how I do things”.

“You know the definition of insanity?” the woman goes on. Jason was having none of her strange wordgames though, and he asks a question of his own. “Who are you?”

She didn’t answer him, though she did take the time to answer her own question. She reaches into her belt and retracts a crossbow. She ogles it for a moment and then takes a bead on Azrael, making sure he stayed still. “It’s doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.

All remains silent between the two for a moment until the woman continues. “Name’s Huntress. All you need to know. Azrael huh?” she asks while turning her head to the side and looking him up and down.

“Funny. I thought it would be one of the bats to break this little robbery up….haven’t met you before. Must be a Society Lackey then”.

“New to town” Jason says evasively. 

“That makes two of us, and you know what they say about towns with two big personalities”. Without another second the crossbow bolt whizzes through the air and right past Jason, impacting against his side but missing a vital hit as the man had moved slightly, throwing himself forward at the exact moment that would save his life.

He didn’t have time to draw his sword, and he curses himself partially for that, but again, this wasn’t the time for rebuke. He slams into the woman, throwing her off balance as she wasn’t ready for a counterattack so soon after letting loose with her crossbow.

She was no slouch either when it came to hand to hand combat.    
  
Roughly she brings her fist down on Jason’s back, and even through the chainmail armor he feels the harshness of the impact, and it almost takes the breath out of them. However, he is able to continue pushing her back, slamming her up against the van as he keeps her close.

Something about her screamed long distance killer, which was why he took such an up close and personal approach to taking her out, but soon, he was proven wrong, and the woman in purple brings up her knee to slam it into the man’s side.    
  
That was rather effective, and she tried to replicate it once more but Jason was just as quick, and manages to catch her leg, throwing her off balance by grasping her thigh tightly and delivering a headbutt to her armored mask.

  
She retorts by throwing a fist right into his stomach, which pushes him back and forces him to let go. Both were in pain now, and yet they were more than ready for a fight. Slowly they move back into position, glaring at one another and assuming a stance of combat readiness.

“Alright, at least there’s someone who might be a challenge in this city” Huntress says while Azrael remains silent. She raises her hands and flexes her fingers in and out, taunting him and goading him into a fight.

He remains quiet, preferring to let her be unbalanced by the lack of response she’d receive from him.

It didn’t work, though it didn’t quiet her either.

“Let’s dance then”.

**_Arkham Asylum_ **

He was waiting in the holding cell, dressed in nothing but what was little better than prison garb. It was enough to break him, though it was clear that he was already broken.

“Ohh god Harvey...Harvey what did you do?” he asks himself, over and over again as he sits on the cot provided to him. He rests his head in his hands and shakes it, rocking back and forth. “You almost killed them...you almost killed them”.

He hadn’t though, and that was a fact that he overlooked right now in that moment.

He was in Arkham, having already committed himself as fast as he could. The police were on scene instantly, and when he got there, and knew that his children were safe, he just...he left. He’d asked Harvey Bullock to drive him up to Arkham, warning the detective that he was a threat to himself and others.

“Ey! Easy there Mayor...listen buddy, relax. Take a deep brea..”.

“Don’t…” he began to snap before calming himself. “Don’t tell me to relax. I almost killed my children just...get me out of here. Take me away. Please”.

The detective must have seen and understood the complete brokenness he heard in the man’s voice, and right after that he was in a police cruiser heading to Arkham. Pamela had been on her way the last he heard, and he couldn’t face her. Not now. Not with everything that had happened.

He felt that their marriage was over.

‘How could she ever look me in the eye after I almost killed our children?’ he had asked himself before coming to the realization that she couldn’t.

No. He was a monster, and he knew it.

That realization slowly brought Big Bad Harv back to life, a voice he thought had been snuffed out so many times before that the return of his mocking tone almost seemed like a foregone conclusion at this point.

_ “You fucked up again Harvey” _ it mocks.  _ “You had a chance and now you blew it! Could’ve killed that bitch if you hadn’t been so fucking soft. What was stopping you from walking past those little gremlins anyway?” _

He tries to ignore the voice, though that idea made him angrier and angrier. It never went away. No matter what. He could engage with it, he could ignore it. It didn’t matter though, and it always came right back to bite him in the ass. 

He begins to rage and shake in his hands, unable to stop the waterfall of hot, angry tears that just wouldn’t stop. “Nothing...nothing I do...nothing matters”.

A voice at the door interrupts him, one that was intensely familiar. “Harvey? Sweetie? You okay?”

Harleen. Good ole’ reliable Harleen Wayne. One of his best friend’s.

He looks up at her through the bars, hating that he had to see her worried visage framed in such a way. Part of him wants to make some sort of snide remark, a joke or something of that nature. But he couldn’t, and instead all that escapes from his lips is the truth clearly visible on his face. 

“No…”.

She nods and smiles through the bars. “That’s okay. It’s okay to be not okay. You know that right?”

He doesn’t have a response, not right at that moment. What he was going through was more than just not being okay. It was downright horrifying. 

“Can...well, we all wanted to visit...but well...as your acting doctor…”.

That took him by surprise and in retrospect he knew it shouldn’t. Harleen cared, and that was a soothing balm to his rough spirits. “Isn’t it a conflict of interest for you to be my doctor?” he asks, trying to speak of trivial things to get his mind off of the issue at hand.

“Nah...it’ll be fine. I’m the warden here. I make the rules” she teases. “So you better be nice to me or you wont get the peanut m&ms you love so much in here”.

He smiles despite his utterly sour mood, knowing that Harleen could cheer anyone up. But it doesn't last for long and his memory forces him right back to the point where he had a gun trained on his children.

“Hey, Harvey? Someone is here to see you. Can I let her in?”

He doesn’t answer, not even registering her words at the time. Only when the door opens, Doyle, the trusty security guard having stepped forward to unlock it, does the noise attract his attention. He looks up and sees Pamela there, standing in the light as she speaks to Harleen. 

“A few minutes Red. Okay? Nothing more. Can’t give you too much special treatment” Harleen warns though everyone knew she wasn’t being truthful. 

“I know Harley. I know. Thank you”.

The green skinned woman turns to look at her husband, who stood up in shock and moved back towards the wall, fearful of his wife because of the condemnation and hatred he thought he’d see in her eyes for sure. 

What made him hate himself even more was the fact that he felt like he deserved it.

  
When he sees Pam though, such delusions are shaken from him, and he’s surprised to see that her eyes were brimming over with tears. He couldn’t embrace her though, comfort her, wipe them away like he normally would. Not when he was the cause of them.

“Harvey...why didn’t you talk to me?”

She asks the question, though it didn’t carry a hint of accusation in it. 

“I...I...I couldn’t”.

She steps forward, angrily this time, though not at him. “Why? Harvey, I’m your wife, and more than that, I’m the mother of your children” she says while grasping his hands, forcibly preventing him from running way from her, though there was nowhere else for him to go, at least in his cell.

He looks away though, ashamed. 

“I...I didn’t want to look weak”.

“Harvey…” she whispers, turning his face back so that he’s looking directly at her. “You’re not weak. I’m the one who messed up”.

“Pam, no…”.

“No, no” she says, stopping him. “I did. I was so busy, off being a superhero and I just...I dumped everything on you. I left you to run a city and take care of the kids all by yourself sweetie. I wasn’t there”.

“Pam, stop, no. This isn’t your fault” he repeats, reaching out to rub her shoulders. “It’s mine...I...I don’t know. This thing, you knew about it but it’s just always been inside me. I thought it went away but…”.

“Shhhh”.

She moves up to him, and gently works on getting him to sit on the bed so that she could sit down beside him. “Sit down Harvey and just talk to me okay? Like two adults should”.

He looks at her, and fresh tears begin to come down. “I’m scared Pam. I’m scared of hurting you. Or the kids...did...did you see them?”

She nods and brushes her hands through his hair gently. “I did. They’re shaken, I wont lie, but they’re okay, and very worried about their father whom they love very much” she says, calming some of his worries.

“I don’t even know what happened. I didn’t think I had the gun and then all of the sudden, it was in my hand and pointed at them...my god…”.

“It’s okay Harvey. They’re okay. That wasn’t you sweetie”. She lowers his head to her chest and forces him to lay there, allowing the man to be calmed by the sound of her heartbeat. She always begins to consciously release pheromones that calm him, causing a slight sleepiness as well. She continues to brush through his hair, tears of her own making quick tracks down her cheeks as Harvey descends into a dreamless sleep.

“Ohh Harvey...baby...why didn’t you tell me?”

She was blaming herself, and barely holding it together. She needed to let him believe that she was fine, but what happened with him? It rattled her. “Harvey, our babies are sleeping over at Wayne Manor” she whispers to the sleeping man. “They’re safe. We’re going to be with you until you get better. I promise. You’re going to be fine”.

She nuzzles against him. “And I’ll be right here, waiting for you every second of the way”.

She presses a kiss to his forehead and slowly works at moving his entire body into the bed, pulling the covers until they’re up and over him to his neck, keeping him warm and giving him a feeling of comfort.

“Harvey…”.

She presses a kiss to his lips while leaning over him, rubbing his burnt cheek as she does. “I will always be with you”.

She turns and moves towards the door, casting a glance at Harleen as she does. The blonde nods her head as the cell door is closed behind her, and slowly takes Pamela off to the side. “Red, we’re going to take such good care of him. I promise”.

“I know”.

“Hey” Harley says, tilting her head up a bit. “This isn’t your fault. I know you’re blaming yourself, but it isn’t”.

  
“Why do I feel like it is?” Pamela asks. “I was off gallivanting, being a hero and he was left with all that stuff to do. All that pressure…”.

“We can’t always see what the people we love are going through Red” Harley explains. “Not all injuries can be seen, and Harvey? Well, he has some stuff that he has to work through. Now, instead of moping, here’s what you can do”.

Pamela nods along, knowing that her friend had never led her astray before.

“You’re gonna go back to the manor, and play with the kids a bit. You love that, so go and do it. In the morning, after my initial evaluation, you come with the kids for a supervised visit if you think they’re ready” she says carefully. “It might be good to have an honest conversation, for them to see that their daddy is fine and just….be a family”.

“Okay”.

“And when he gets out?” she goes. “You and him can go away for a little while, on me and Bruce’s dime of course…”.

“Harley I can’t ask you or Bruce to pay for that…”.

Harley silences her, a hand over her lips. “Shh...already did. It’s on hold for you. A week in the bahamas as soon as Harvey gets out. Doctor’s orders”.

Pam seems to relent at that and looks at her best friend before throwing herself forward and wrapping her arms about her tightly, unable to stop the tears. Harley hugs her back, rubbing up and down her to keep her calm. “Pam, break down all ya want with me, but you also got two babies waiting at home for you. So just...keep that in mind”.

After another minute or so the woman pulls herself together, remembering exactly that fact.

She steps back, wipes her eyes and smoothes out her shirt, taking a deep breath to steady herself before looking down the hall. “Is he going to be okay for the night?”

Harley nods, assuring the woman without words.

“I don’t suppose there’s any way to let me spend the night here with him” she grimaces. “I’m afraid not Red. Against the rules”.

“Rules you set” the partly plant woman says back.

“True but...he needs rest sweetie”.

“I know...I know I’m just...worried”.

“Don’t be” Harleen calms her, making to walk her out of the medical ward. “He’s going to be fine”. Pam smiles up at her friend, allowing her feet to move along with the Warden as they made their way to the exit. 

“I know. I know...but I’m still worried”.

“It’s been a rough few days huh?”

“Yeah...it has”.

“It’ll be okay”.

  
She didn’t know why she was saying it yet again, but maybe Harleen was repeating it simply because it felt good to say that, even if you really weren’t sure it was going to be okay. 

“I know”.

Pamela agreed because it just felt better to have faith and believe in what the woman was saying.

**_Gotham University_ **

Jenny was tired, and part of her wanted to go to sleep while the other part of her was warring with a desire to wait up for Jason. He’d said that he’d be at the library most of the night, studying, and she trusted him.

She trusted him maybe more than she was supposed to.

But laying their in bed, going over it? She could never think of a time where he’d given her reason not to trust her. He made it a point to not be alone in situations where things might lean towards the...dangerous side of things.

She knew that girls wanted him.

He was handsome, smart and a heir to the Wayne fortune. Those things alone made him one of the most desired men on campus. She knew that she didn’t fit with him, at least not in their eyes.

She was shorter, maybe a little chubbier than they were. She had the pedigree, the Cobblepots had been in Gotham for almost as long as the Waynes had been after all, but not the riches nor the pretensions of old money.

The Iceberg Lounge was a place that required constant work. It was flashy and showy for a reason. It needed to attract customers.

While many of the preening socialites might go out on dates there, the daughter of its proprietor was certainly not welcomed in their circles. ‘Pfft...good riddance to them anyways’ she thinks, channeling some of the “I don’t give a damn” attitude of her father.

She walks around the room, just pacing with an almost endless energy she sometimes got at night. Usually she’d mix herself a cocktail to calm her nerves, and she was about to when she looked down at her hand with Jason’s ring upon it.

It made her smile and stop, wanting to now wait until her fiancee got home to offer him one as well. It was just one of those thoughts she had. Sitting in bed, both gingerly drinking an adult beverage to cap off their night.

It was classy, like the old movies she used to watch with her mom and dad.

She always wanted to be classy, but she wanted to get their of her own accord, under her own power. She wanted to show Jason that she would be an equal to him as best as she could. 

“Hmpph...I may not fit in with the rest of them” she thinks to herself proudly, settling back into bed. “But I’m the one wearing his jersey and his ring so ha!” she says, mocking her not present foes with her triumph.

“Hmm…”.

She takes his pillow and wraps her arms about it, taking in his lingering scent that spoke of him in such a unique way. Her mind drifts off as she closes her eyes, unable to help it now. The two would walk down the steps within the Iceberg Lounge, arms interlocked as they opened yet another night of festivities. 

It would be amazing! The culmination of all her dreams.

She wanted to make his dreams come true too though, and she certainly wouldn’t mind entertaining her husband’s guests after some historical seminar or another. She had no idea what Jason was talking about when he wrote his thesis on the Spring Offensive of 1917, but she loved hearing his voice and seeing the passion in his yes.

“I love you Jason” she murrs, kissing the pillow. “Mmmm...come home soon”.

**_Gotham Trainyard_ **

He couldn’t exactly answer the question of how they’d gotten here, but he did know that it was the result of a very difficult fight that was being drawn out by the Huntress’ need to escape.

“Just give up goddamit” she seethes, throwing yet another punch in a rage. It misses him and he turns just enough to sweep out her legs from under her. 

The bank where it all started wasn’t far from them, in fact it was only really separated by a concrete barrier along the side of the road. The police cars were already there, the lights of their sirens flashing into the night sky to further signal their presence. 

“You’re going to wind up dying idiot. Not the cape I’m after”.

She lunges forward, having drawn a knife from her belt to try and drive into the young man’s mid section. However, Jason was quick as well, and he draws the blade of St. Dumas from his belt just in time to deflect the smaller weapon’s thrust against the hilt. 

He draws it fully, and ignites it, ready to drive forward on this so called Huntress, and put her in cuffs. Her eyes go wide, though he senses that it isn’t in fear like the others. In fact her eyes are drawn to the sword in recognition.

He doesn’t have time to think that over, and he offers the woman a chance yet again.

“Give up” he booms out. “You can’t win this”.

She continues to look at him, unsure of what to say. Barbara’s mind in and of itself was reeling, in shock at Jason of all people being this new cape. It made sense though. In its own way.

“I don’t want to hurt you” she says suddenly, dropping her knife and backing up with her hands up, palms out as she backs away from him.

Jason was confused, not knowing what was going on at all. “Wait...stop…”.

He sees that she’s moving onto the tracks and he steps forward at the same time to stop her. She stops in the middle, and the light of a train exiting the tunnel momentarily distracts him.

He hears the whizzing of some object, and when he looks up he has just enough time to see the projectile about to hit him. At the last moment it opens and reveals a net which is splayed out in the air and covers him, becoming tighter and forcing him to the ground as well as extinguishing the sword as it falls from his hands. 

He writhes on the ground, trying to escape the snare but succeeding in nothing more than just trapping himself in the net deeper and disturbing the gravel. He looks up as the train blasts its horn, and Huntress was staring down at him.

“I l……………”.

The rest of her sentence is cut off as the train passes, causing her to disappear from his vision. Slowly though, he manages to reposition his sword so that it cuts up and down the rope, slowly separating the threads until it snaps.

When he is free, he jumps up, casting his eyes all around to look for any trace of the Huntress. He already knew she wasn’t there, and this search was more out of habit than of necessity.

“Dammit” he says to himself angrily, looking up to see that the police were trying to make their way down to the tracks, having figured that something was going on down there due to the non train related noise.    
  
He had to leave, and quickly.

‘Mom and dad can’t figure out I’m doing this...not yet’.

  
Seeing that the tracks were empty now, he bolts, using the relative lack of light to hide his movements. It worked, and he just manages to dodge a police patrol that had moved out and were now scanning their flashlights over the tracks. 

‘What the hell did she say?’ he asks himself, remembering that whatever the Huntress had tried to tell him had been blurred out by the sound of the passing train. ‘My helm’ he thinks, reminding himself that not everything about his suit was based on the supernatural. He’d installed a camera to record things as he saw them, just in case he missed something and had to go back over it.

‘If I can get to the batcomputer, I can resynthesize the audio and pick up what she said’.

That was the easy part,

The hard part was to do it sneakily. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo........  
> Alright...the next story is going to be a Gotham by Gaslight alternative universe. However! I had an idea for another story set in the Red Son Universe. Now, who would you like to see be the focus of that story? Pairings? Just curious.

**_Lexcorp Tower_ **

Mercy and Lex were hurrying along the hallway in their nightclothes, prompting a few stares from the nervous guards who had apparently already been put off guard by something that had happened in the tower.

Mercy herself felt embarrassed for being caught in even her conservative night dress, and she fastens her robe around her tighter as they pass a few guards who ogle her. That lasts for exactly five seconds until her her husband steps in front of her and the guards all bashfully turn away.

“What’s going on?”

His voice was authoritative and firm, brokering no disagreement or dissent in anything. “The girl, we picked up some readings in her room Mr. Luthor, and then well….she smashed through the wall…”.

“Ohh no…” Mercy says, putting her hand to her mouth. “Is she still here?”

“Ohh yeah, no...umm, maybe I didn’t explain it well” the guard says, still flustered by the whole situation. “It was accidental apparently. She uhh...wanted a glass of water, and it was dark sooo….”.

Mercy frowns and looks down the hallway, wanting to preempt conversing with the man and get straight to the heart of the issue. “Clara? Clara are you okay?” she calls out, heading down to the room that had been made hers for the time being.

When Mercy got to her room, she could see indeed that one massive hole was in the wall to the outside hallway. She moves forward more and more, now joined by Lex as they look into the room at the little girl sitting on her bed, hunched up as if in fear of being in trouble. 

Surprisingly, Lex was the first to speak.

“Hey Clara? Next time you’re thirsty? The door...it usually works better”.

They get a sheepish “I’m sorry” in response that just melts their hearts. Mercy quickly walks into the room and sets herself down on the bed beside the young girl, careful not to intrude upon her space too much, but also desperately wanting to take her in her own arms nonetheless.    
  
Lex was in a similar predicament, and both cast a glance down at the girl who seemed utterly broken. That didn’t shock them. Not in the least. She’d just found out that everyone she loved was gone, including her parents, and now had to make due with the alien world she found herself on.

That does settle their sense of inertia though.

Mercy reaches out and places her hand on the girl’s shoulder, Lex doing the same. “Are you okay Clara?”

The girl just sniffles in response, bringing her knees up under her chin and beginning to cry. “No”. Mercy moves further and wraps her arms about her, pulling her little body into her lap while Lex moves across the bed into the spot vacated by the little girl to be closer to his wife, who was now holding her.

She now cried a little bit more openly, and seemed to move into Mercy a bit more than she would’ve originally. She’d remained skeptical of the people around her, wary of even letting them close in the short time they’d had to hide her in Lexcorp. 

But it was clear that now she needed contact.

And the Luthors were all too willing to let her take comfort in them if she needed it.

Mercy doesn’t say anything and instead just rubs the girls back through the pajamas they’d gotten her, rocking back and forth as she just makes light comforting noises in an attempt to soothe her. She had to remind herself that she was essentially a stranger to this little girl, and not to get too attached. 

  
She didn’t know what would happen in the future. After all, a Kyrptonian was the last thing anyone on Earth ever wanted to see again and honestly? Nobody could blame them.

But Clara? She wasn’t Superman, and all Mercy and Lex could see right now was a little girl who needed someone to care.

“What...what’s going to happen to me?” she asks suddenly, piercing Mercy with the utter fear in her eyes. All the woman could do was gently stroke the side of her face, looking towards her husband, hopeful that he could supply an answer to that utterly hard question.

He did, as the gears behind his eyes never really stopped turning.

“You’re going to be safe Clara” he says. “On Earth...well, we dealt with something not so long ago. Someone from Krypton…”.

“But…..you said it exploded. That everyone died”.

“Almost everyone yes” Mercy supplies. “But, like you, someone else got off the planet. A baby named Kal El”.

Her eyes narrow at this and she nods along, recognizing the last name that demarcated whoever this, Kal El was, as an enemy of her family. She didn’t know why, but her father had told her to hate them, and that was enough.

“I know them”.

“You do?” Lex asks curiously. The little girl nods. “Uhhm”. She reaches up with her tiny hand to wipe some of her tears away. “The house of El always fought my daddy. Over everything”.

“And who was your daddy sweetie?”

At this she smiles, loving the chance to talk about her family, of which she was very proud. “He was the greatest general Krypton ever had! He won all the wars and my mommy helped. She was a...I don’t remember”. She frowned at that, not quite able to bring to mind the word that related to her mother.

‘Hmm...the data banks on the rocket’ Lex thinks. ‘We’ll find out more through them, no doubt’. It had been slow going, the team constantly checking for booby traps and failsafes, not wanting to damage anything in the process as they worked on data extraction.

“What did he do?”

“Who sweetie?”

“Kal…”.

“Ohh” Mercy says, deflating a bit. “Well...he was a bad man. He killed a lot of people. Tried to rule over us. He’s gone though, last we heard. A group known as the Justice Society beat him and his band of bad guys before that though”.

“Ohh….the Justice Society?” she asks curiously.

“Yeah, a group of heroes. They stand up for what’s right and good. Mercy and I...well, we’re kind of part of it” Lex says before Mercy rolls her eyes. “He’s bashful and humble, though he wasn’t always that way. He actually pretty much founded it”.

“Ohhh”.    
  
Clara was looking at the two in awe. “You’re heroes?”

“Well...more like...we just help a bit from time to time” he says. “Mercy and I don’t have powers so we kind of help out with money and what not. Anything the Society needs”.

“You all sound like Nightwing and Flamebird” the little girl says with a smile. “Who?” Mercy asks. “Nightwing and Flamebird” Clara says insistently, as if she was in shock over the two not knowing who they were. “They’re heroes on Krypton. We used to listen to stories about them. They flew and had powers and fought bad guys! They were my favorite stories”.

Lex and Mercy share a look, happy that the girl had at least smiled for them. “Ohh really? Well...maybe you can meet some new heroes here soon”. Her eyes widen at the thought that suddenly comes to her. 

‘Konn’r….’.

She smiles slyly, the gears already turning. “As a matter of fact...there is one more Kryptonian...well, half, on Earth”.

“Who? Are they like Kal El?”

“No, no, no” Lex says, catching on very quickly. “He’s very different. He’s Kal’s son. I think maybe you’d like him. He’s only a few years older than you so maybe you’d become good friends. His mom would absolutely love to meet you too. Her name is Komand’r. A princess from Tamaran”.

“Ohh...we beat Tamaran. My daddy did. Not the planet though. He only blew up their fleet. They agreed to leave us alone though!” she said proudly, boasting of her father’s achievements of centuries ago. 

“Ahh...well….when you meet her, how about you just keep that to yourself sweet pea” Mercy says, taking a liberty and gently bopping the girl on the nose with her finger, causing her to giggle. “Where do they live?”

“A place called Gotham City. She lives with another team of heroes called the Teen Titans, though...it’s more just the Titans nowadays”.

Clara lays her head on Mercy’s shoulder and smiles gently, nodding at the man who smiles back at her. “You’re not tired are you?”

“No…” she replies out nervously.

“That’s okay. Mercy and I are both night owls anyway. Usually we’d wake to work on boring paperwork, but, how about this? Lexcorp has a nice movie theater. Usually we use it for employee functions and stuff”.

“What’s a movie?”

Mercy ruminates on that, but quickly comes up with an answer. “It’s like the stories about Flamebird and Nightwing, but they are on screen where you can see them”.

“Ohhhh….”.

“Would you like to watch a movie about some of our heroes before meeting the real ones?” Lex teases, knowing from looking into her eyes that the girl was going to take the bait. She nods vigorously, her head moving so fast that he thought it might fall off. “And to sweeten the deal? How about some oreo cookies?”

“What’s a coo…”.

“Sweetie, how about we just show you?” Mercy teases, gently taking the girl by her waist and putting her on the floor before standing herself and reaching down to grasp her hand. “Besides, you’re really going to like them. Trust me. There isn’t a kid in the entire galaxy who isn’t going to enjoy a glass of milk and oreos”.

Clara had so many questions, but she didn’t ask them, wanting to listen to the woman’s advice. There was something about her voice that was just innately soothing, calming. Motherly. She reminded her very much of her own mother, though it was clear that Mercy was much less subdued by the imperatives of Kryptonian high society.

Lex joins them, moving along to the other side and taking the girl’s opposit hand, forming a protective flank around the diminutive figure who certainly didn’t need it, but still wanted it. She felt safe with these two.

“I’ll get some popcorn too. Just to mix it up with sweet and salty” Lex says.

“What movie should we show this little princess?” Mercy asks, looking towards her husband who clearly already had an idea. “Well, she likes stories with heroes kicking bad guy butt sooooo...how about the Avengers?”

“Two and a half hours of nonstop action? Well, I think that might be a little much for her” Mercy jokingly says, casting a glance down at the visibly eager little girl who practically bounces as they walk. “I can handle it!” she protests.

“Are you sure?” Lex joins in. “I mean, there’s a lot of explosions and stuff. Could be a little overwhelming….”.

“I can handle it! I promise!”

She was jubilant, indeed excited about the prospect of seeing actual action and explosions in front of her. On Krypton all they’d had was pictures, and those were regulated to history books. Her father had told her that she was much too young yet to “embroil herself in war just yet” as he said.

“Well Mercy, she promised” he says while laughing, knowing that the little girl would enjoy herself immensely. “Yup! And I trust her. She’s too cute to lie”.

Clara smiled at that, enjoying how the two seemed to radiate warmth. Lex and Mercy were already thinking about what had to be done. Things could be hidden, records falsified. They’d tell the society of course, but at the end of the day Clara Zod would hopefully, if she agreed, just become Claire Luthor, the adopted daughter of Lex and Mercy Luthor. 

They had to keep her safe, and sadly they had to watch out for her in other ways. They could ill afford another Superman on this planet. Not with all that had been sacrificed to beat him back the first time. 

Still, these worries were in the back of their minds.

They were both too excited while thinking about watching a film with her, playing with her, scheduling a play date in Gotham for her and all sorts of other things. Her first day of school, Christmas. 

Of course, Clara wasn’t aware of all this, though she would be consulted about all of this. 

When the time was right.

After Mercy outfitted her room with all that a young girl might need or even want.

**_The Batcave_ **

“What the hell do you mean you’re done?”

Renee was taken aback by all of this, not having expected this at all when she and Tatsu were invited to visit the batcave. Tatsu herself apparently hadn’t been aware, and the shock registered easily on her face as well.

Bruce and Harleen, even Vic and Dinah, remained resolute however, and none of them were willing to back down.

“Well...we couldn’t keep doing this forever commish” Harley says in a placating voice. “I mean, we’re getting old”.

“Mierda!” she says, not wanting to take that excuse at all. “What’s really going on? And don’t lie to me”.

  
Bruce casts his eyes downwards and then slowly nods to himself before standing, fixing the commissioner and the samurai with his gaze. “You were right”.

“About what?”

“Barbara…”.

The mood, already quite sour, goes from bad to worse, and Renee looks down at her feet, remembering the argument so many years ago that had led to her estrangement from the bat family. She felt guilt over what she said now, the passage of time having put much more perspective on how things had happened. 

“Bruce...I’m sorry about what…”.

“No...Don’t”.

He didn’t want to hear her retract her statement from so long ago. Not when he himself believed in it so fervently now. “You were right Renee. I got her killed. I chose to allow her and Jason to follow us down the path they did, and it cost her her life and almost cost Jason his”.

She didn’t have words. Not now, and instead of anything that could come from her mouth she begins to cry, quite uncharacteristically. “She was such a beautiful girl Bruce…”.

Harleen closes her own eyes, remembering her daughter and trying to keep her heart together. “She was. And Jason grew into a strong man, despite the anchor I put around his neck. He’s happy. Engaged to Jenny Cobblepot”.

Renee laughs, hugging Tatsu close. “We have that in common then...the engaged part. It would be weird for us both to be engaged to Jenny Cobblepot”.

That draws out a bit of laughter from the group, and the mood becomes a bit less icy though it keeps its mournful undercurrent. “Bruce…”.

“After we took down Pyg, after I put you in danger...I knew that I couldn’t keep doing this”.

“Shogun...you did what you thought was best at the time” Tatsu says. “You cannot be faulted for the actions of another, especially when you wished for anything else to happen but what did”. The former vigilante smiles and nods, thankful to the Japanese woman for her support. “Thank you Katana….but regardless...it doesn’t change how I feel. How we all feel”.

He looks up the stairs that lead back into the manor where his family was. Undoubtedly Martha was hard at work, training with her Amazon guardians or reading. Mary was most likely playing a video game. The Sage children, that raging tornado that seemed to rotate about the house were probably making a mess of some sort while a long suffering but happy Alfred followed behind them, sweeping up.

Elise, since it was twelve o’clock in the afternoon, was most likely in the city, speaking to her scattered Amazons and checking up to make sure they were doing well.

“I have a family” he says, turning back to the two women in the cave now. “I need to be a better father”. Harleen moves up into his side and cuddles him close. “We both need to be better parents”.

The sentiment was echoed on Dinah and Vic’s face. They’d all given up valuable time of their lives, been away from their children far too much for their liking, and they felt that they were missing time that they could never get back. 

It wasn’t too late though.

Renee sighs and looks down, knowing that she’d have to bow to that kind of argument. “Dammit...alright well...the city is gonna miss ya”.

  
She didn’t know what to say, and she didn’t want to get too emotional as she was already fighting desperately against that tide.

“It’ll be fine”.

Bruce was at least sure that he was telling the truth when it came to that. The city had many protectors now, and so many of them were wearing blue, not jumping through the night as vigilantes. Things had changed, and they’d changed for the better.

“If the department needs you for anything though, you’re still gonna be there right?” she asks, receiving a nod from Bruce and a wide smile from Harleen. “You know you can toots”.

“The conspiracy is still out there” Vic adds from behind, drawing a groan from his long suffering wife who molds into his side and rubs along him gently. “I’ll always be fighting them, even if I’m not throwing punches as the Question anymore”.

“Same here Montoya” Dinah adds. “If you need a screamer, let me know”.

She was touched by all of this. Really. After all, these were the same people who had saved the city, and even her multiple times. It was the end of an era, and it hurt. It left a huge hole in her heart that caused her to regret doubly the wide space that had opened up between all of them as of late.

“I will...don’t think I wont forget you offered”.

Her mind drifts back to the reason they were today, though finding out about the bat family’s retirement had in and of itself been nerve wracking, and she wanted to move onto something that would be just as intense to ask, but...perhaps might lead to something perfect.

“You can help us now...if you were able”.

Bruce nods in agreement. “Of course commish...what did ya need?”

She casts a look at Tatsu, wanting to gain her assistance in such a matter before sighing, bracing herself as she reaches out and takes the Japanese woman’s hand within her own. “Well..Tatsu and I...we want to have a baby”.

“AHHHH!!” Dinah shouts out excitedly, jumping up and down in happiness. “Congratulations you too! Ohh this is so amazing!”

The rest were equally excited, but of course...there were questions.

“Are you two thinkin’ of adopting?” Harleen asks, smiling at the thought. Renee wanted to run, feeling so embarrassed by all of this, especially since she was going to ask something huge of one of the two men, and their women, in the room right now.

“Well...no. We want to do it the natural way”.

Dinah was the only one that didn’t understand what she meant, and her confusion was evident on the facial expression she wore. “Umm...what do you guys mean? No offense but uh...unless one of you has a secret, you don’t have the right plumbing”.

Harleen slaps her hand over her face and smiles, laughing as the two women both blush in tandem with one another. “Dinah sweetie...that’s not what they mean”.

Vic, wanting to spare his wife and friends any more embarrassment, leans into her ear and whispers what he was guessing the commissioner meant. 

Her eyes widen and she gasps, moving her hand to her mouth and blushing. “I knew that!” she defends herself, though it lacks conviction and truth. “Alright” she admits. “I didn’t think of it right then. But...neither of you two swing that way right?”

“Bango”.

“Nope” Montoya says, laughing herself at how ridiculous this situation is. “We’re hoping to use a...well...turkey baster. Thing is? We need a guy who is able to...make a deposit so to speak”.

“So...you came askin’ for some baby batter?” Harleen teases, leaning up against the batcomputer’s desk and crossing her arms over her chest. At that moment however, a clatter is heard from behind them as Alfred had walked down the stairs into the batcave and happened to overhear nothing but that part.

Harleen turned white as a ghost at the man’s entrance, the metal tray on the floor. “Ohh god Alfred….”.

Renee, Bruce, Vic and Dinah began to roar with laughter while Tatsu kept a neutral smirk on her face that was evidence of how funny she found the situation as well. 

Alfred reaches down, quickly regaining his couth, and retrieves the tray from the ground, quickly moving to the tables where the drinks he’d brought down before were positioned, now empty. He quickly retrieves the cups, clearly wanting to exit the cave as Harleen continues to turn a brighter and brighter shade of red.

“Master Bruce...call me if you should require anything else but...whatever is going on...I wish to not be involved in”.

Those are the butler’s last words before moving back up the stairs, probably into the kitchen where he’d throw himself into work to take his mind off of, what to him, was an untoward conversation.

The laughter dies down with the man’s retreat and Harley is left, now a little miffed at her friend’s and husband’s laughter. “Pfft...great. Now I gotta explain to my father in law that I was talking about helping the commish smuggle out some semen...you know? None of this sounds good, no matter how ya frame it so let’s just...let it go and be adults”.

“Sure, sure” Dinah adds before Vic chuckles to himself. “Baby batter”.

“But anyways...yeah. We just kept thinking and we narrowed it down to three candidates we’d trust” Renee says. “Harvey Dent, but well, he’s in Arkham right now, resting and we don't wanna bother with something so estupida”.

“Trust me” Bruce says with a wave of his hand. “This isn’t stupid, and under normal circumstances Harvey would’ve been glad to help you” he says while Harleen picks up. “But Pam? Ain’t no way she’d sign off on something like that. Harvey’s “baby batter” she says with air quotes, “is exclusively from her. I don’t know if plants are territorial but yeah...Red is territorial”.

“Hai. I understand Ivy on that” Tatsu says, casting a glance towards Renee.

“Who are your other two candidates?” Bruce asks curiously. 

“You Shogun” Tatsu says with a bow, causing the man to blush himself this time. “Umm me?”

His mouth made him look like a fish for a moment before he quickly closes it. “Hai. It would be an honor to be seen as worthy of raising a child from you Bruce” Tatsu says. “And you know they would be more than well cared for and loved”.

“Well, of course I know that but…”.

He casts a sad glance towards Harleen who smiles gently and reaches out to touch his shoulder, giving him an encouraging squeeze. “I would love to do something like that for you, believe me, but unfortunately I can’t”.

“Why not?” Renee asks, a little offended despite herself.

“Because I’m sterile”.

The silence descends over the room, allowing Bruce to launch into his explanation. “When I was drugged by Selina Kyle, the toxin she shot me up with altered by physiology, irreversibly. It made me stronger and faster, maybe even smarter, but it had its negative effects as well. I wasn’t able to father anymore children myself”.

“Luckily for us” Harleen says, patting her stomach. “Our twin terrors were already snug as a bug inside me”. Bruce squeezes her hand upon his shoulder, more than thankful for her support and care. She somehow always had a way of calming him down, talking him off of the ledge that fell into the void of darkness always threatening to creep up on him.

Renee and Tatsu’s faces both fall at this revelation, and any offense that Renee held within her melted away. “I’m so sorry Bruce”.

  
“Don’t be” he says, shaking her off. “I have four children”. He still counted Barbara, even after she was gone. “And all of them are perfect”.

Renee had kind of really been hoping that it would be Bruce. After all, he was handsome, even though she didn’t swing that way she’d admit that, strong and smart. All qualities she’d want passed down to her child. 

Tatsu was even more saddened though as to be honored with her shogun’s child would’ve been a feather in her cap that never could’ve been taken away. 

  
A sly smile crosses Harleen’s face though, and she looks up. “You know….just in case you didn’t consider, though I have a feeling I know who the third candidate is, there is someone with a track record of having incredibly good swimmers around here”.

The others slowly turn on Vic and Dinah, the other two feeling as if they were in the middle of a spotlight now. “I mean, honestly speaking? There is an irishman who pumped four babies at once into our residential canary here. Just food for thought…”.

“....Me?”

“....Vic?”

The married couple look at one another in shock at what was being suggested, though in hindsight it should’ve been obvious that they’d the next people to be asked. It only made sense. 

“I...I don’t know” Vic says, holding his wife close.

“Please Vic…” Renee says. “I know this is...well, it’s awkward for everyone but trust me. It’s nothing. Not a big deal...no...no” she says with a sigh, rubbing the side of her head. “It is a big deal. It’s the biggest deal to ever really happen in me and Tatsu’s life” she admits, taking her fiancee’s hands in her own. 

“And for you to help us with it? There’s nothing I could say that would explain how much it would mean to me or Tatsu”.

Tatsu herself bowed in their direction, adding a solemnity to the occasion that communicated how much that it indeed meant to her. Vic looked at his wife again, who seemed conflicted in what she thought. They all knew that Vic wouldn’t do this without his wife’s consent, so they waited with baited breath for her answer. 

Slowly she nods. “Alright” she says with a smile, causing the group to clap or cheer, Tatsu and Renee hugging each other tightly. Vic pulls the blonde into his arms and kisses the top of her head. “You sure about this?”

She nods against him.

“Yeah...I mean, you’re not actually having sex with her. It’s just...ohh well...hold on!” she shouts, putting a hold on the celebrations for a second as they worry about her changing her mind. A smile curves Dinah’s lips as she remembers that she’s in a position to negotiate. 

“Two things”.

“Alright…” Renee says reservedly, wondering what the blonde bombshell was going to ask of her. 

“They gave me a ticket three months ago for parking my motorcycle in front of the library. I was busy busting up a drug dealing operation and didn’t have time to park it legally. I want that lifted”.

Tatsu was about to speak, wanting to remind the woman that considering she had a secret identity, such a ticket wasn’t binding when Renee, sensing that the samurai was about to correct the woman, silences her with a gaze.

“Deal. It’s struck” she says, happy for the blonde’s sometime ditzy nature.

Harleen just slaps her hand onto her face and sighs, shaking her head back and forth. Dinah though, was pleased. “And what was the second thing?”

“I want to be the godmother”.

Renee and Tatsu looked over again at that one, discussing it wordlessly. “Deal...but we wanted to ask Bruce to be the godfather”. That seems to confuse Dinah who would’ve thought that Vic would be asked to be the godfather since...well...he was going to be the actual father. 

“But what about Vic?” she asks curiously.

“Ohh, well Dinah...I’m alright with just being Uncle Vic on this one” he admits. “I think it’s an honor that he deserves”. That was one thing the room all agreed on. They go silent at that, all smiling sheepishly at one another until Tatsu breaks the ice by retracting the turkey baster and throwing it over at Vic.

It flails through the air and he almost drops it in his shock, certainly not having expected it to come along so soon. He fumbles with it in his hands and almost drops it until securing a proper hold upon it. His eyes were wide as he looks down at the perfectly common kitchen tool that about to be used for a perfectly uncommon purpose.

“What...now?”

“Hai”.

Renee was much more reserved and indeed embarrassed by her fiancee’s forwardness. “Dios mio...Tatsu!” she rebukes her. “Nani?” she asks, not sure of what she did wrong. “You can’t just toss the thing at him...jeez”.

“Why not?”

“Because it’s embarrassing…”.

Indeed it was, and the two Sages look at one another with massive blushes. “Alright, alright...everyone stop arguing” Dinah says, wanting to make this easier on her husband. “We can do this...it’s actually...well...it’s a good time”.

“Why?” Renee asks.

“We umm...we haven’t had any private time in like a week or so...soooo….you know what? I’m not explaining everything. Okay? This is awkward as hell! Vic...come on. Lets get to the upstairs bathroom. You two...hey, which one of you is going to be the one carrying this baby around?” she asks suddenly, drawing everyone’s attention back to a question that hadn’t been answered. 

“Me” Montoya says. “After all, I’m the one who’d get paid time off”.

“Alright then. Get to...I guess a bedroom where you can be...basted”.

“BASTED! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Harleen screeches out, falling into her husband’s lap off of the desk as he joins in, enjoying the utter hilarious situation they now found themselves in. He leans his forehead against Harley’s as they both continue to laugh, the two couples moving upstairs to...do the deed.

“Woah, woah...Dinah? Where are you going?”

“Shut it Harls!” the fuming blonde snaps back, dragging her husband behind her. “If my hubbie is going to make a deposit, I’m going to help. Only way I’m feeling better about this, is if I have a part to play”.

Renee was dragging Tatsu in the same way, blushing and grinning ear to ear in excitement over the thought of becoming a mother. “Bruce...we’re using one of your rooms...we, two. They’re using the bathroom” she calls out.

“Don’t mess up the sheets” Harleen calls out. “Keep your legs up to keep it inside after you get...basted” She shouts before laughing again. Renee only throws back a middle finger in response and Harley calms, setting herself down gently in Bruce’s lap. “Ahhh…”.

“Even as Bruce and Harleen Wayne, we have a very eventful life don’t we?”

“Yup...but I don’t want a life, eventful, or uneventful, that doesn’t have you in it puddin’”.

He begins to kiss along her jawline, his hand caressing her waist lovingly and causing them to get more and more into one another. He growls against her lips when she coquettishly licks his own before pulling back.

“Still have the grapple gun?” he asks.

“Yeah why?”

“I’m taking you up to the perch. We need some privacy”. 

He sees said grappler on the computer’s desk and reaches out for it, grasping it in his hand as he stands up, still carrying his wife bridal style. With one arm he holds her, making the woman coo at his strength, and with the other he aims up into the ceiling and launches the rope, pulling the two up into the darkness instantly, where only Harley’s slightly childish “weeeeeee!” can be heard before they reach their intended destination.

Then all that could be heard was the faint sound of cooing, and the ruffling of bats, disturbed from their perches by the interlopers. 

**_Gotham University Grounds_ **

She fit in.

Well, as best as she could tell. She didn’t think that anyone would stop and ask her a question about who she was or why she was there. She was just another pretty girl, taking a stroll and wearing a coat and scarf to keep herself warm. 

The scarf was there to also hide her identity, especially from the young man she was following.

Her eyes stayed on him, wherever he moved, and she was still an expert at tracking people. In fact, she’d only gotten better. Still, she knew that he was an expert too, and thus would know if he was being followed. She had to prevent herself from making a misstep, though that was becoming ever harder with how he made her heart beat increase.

‘Jason...you’re so handsome’ she thinks, reflecting on how he’d grown into a man. ‘I mean, you were handsome then...well, heh...I’m not even talking to you and you’ve got me tongue tied’ she admits to herself, watching as he walks into the middle of the park and sets himself down on a bench, opening a book.

“He’s moved on”.

She didn’t even need to see who it was to know who was speaking, and Rose didn’t require that kind of acknowledgement anyways. She simply sets herself down besides her friend and leader, similarly disguised.

“He’ll change his mind”.

“Are you sure about that?” she asks skeptically. “Look at him? He’s happy”.

“Why the hell do you care?” Babs snarls out before controlling her emotions. “Because you’re my friend” she says, nonplussed by the woman’s reaction. “And now that we know he’s this Azrael character...we both know what has to happen”.

“Don’t even think about it”.

“If I don’t, Shiva or Bronze Tiger will, or maybe Ras when he comes back” she says. “It’ll only be a week or two”. Barbara shivers, and it wasn’t from the cold as much as it was the reminder that the leader of the League was soon coming to Gotham. Apparently, his work in Santa Prisca was complete, and he was coming back to Gotham. 

He promised her, in his letter, that she would still be in charge of operations within the city. She doubted that he was telling the truth. There was not a single battlefield that Ras stepped on that he didn’t feel the need to control. 

“Do you have a plan to lure the bats out?” Rose asks, turning the conversation away as Barbara’s eyes remain locked on Jason who was still across the way. “I do”.

“And what is it?”

Barbara remains silent. “Let’s just say...it’ll show them how wrong they’ve been about how they do things”. The answer was vague, and didn’t give much away to the one eyed girl. Still, she accepted it as just one of those odd things her leader was prone too. 

Just then, a girl moves out of one of the buildings and moves down the steps, one that was instantly recognizable to Barbara, and simply makes he seethe by merit of existing. It didn’t help to watch her move towards Jason either, a smile splitting her face.

Rose remains quiet, but slowly reaches her hand out across the bench and places it atop Barbara’s, hoping that she could provide a comforting presence. Barbara rebukes her, though not with words, as she pulls away, wanting to avoid such contact. Rose is hurt, though she quickly hides it under a scowl as she turns her gaze back to Jason and Jenny.

Jason was engrossed in his book, and Jenny takes the opportunity to sneak up on him from behind the bench, placing her hands over his eyes. “Guess who?” she says as Barbara reads her lips. Jason doesn’t respond verbally and instead stands up, reaches over the back of the bench and gently lifts the girl as if she was no more than a feather, positioning her in his lap.

Barbara was gripping the edge of the seat fiercely, hating how they looked into each other’s eyes and touched each other’s faces. She could see the ring upon the girl’s finger as well, and that didn’t help either. 

It was like feeling a stake being pushed right through her heart.

“He was yours once Barbara” Rose says. “But he’s not now. Let him go, and don’t let what he once meant to you get in the way of our plans”.

“You don’t understand…” Barbara whispers.

“I do” Rose affirms. “I understand what it’s like to love someone...especially when you can’t have them”. That made Barbara look away as it was clear that Rose was speaking about her. She would always be the girl’s friend, but a romantic connection between them? It simply wasn’t possible for Barbara. Not only did she love Jason, but she just wasn’t attracted in that way to a woman’s form or body.

“Let it go. It’ll be best for you in the long run” Rose restates, just as Jason leans down to capture Jenny’s lips in his own. 

Barbara stands and looks down on Rose, a fire in her eyes that she’d never quite seen before. “I’m going to be doing a lot of work soon. The bats aren’t going to be able to stop me. Not now. I need to make a point before Ras gets here”.

  
She casts yet another baleful look over her shoulder at Jenny, laughing in her fiancee’s arms at something he’d said. She knew that that was her position, and hers alone. An urge to kill the girl right now welled up within her, but she suppresses it.

“When I call you...I’ll send a certain phrase. When you get it? Kill her”.

  
She makes to walk away until Rose stops her while asking what the code word was. Barbara looks back at Jason and smiles, raising her hand and blowing him a secretive kiss. ‘This is going to hurt Jason...but I’ll be there for you. Just like you were there for me...I love you’.

  
She turns back to Rose and scowls a bit, thinking over an appropriate phrase. She comes up with it quickly and turns to walk away, muttering it in her wake. 

“Knightfall”.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Gotham By Gaslight is going to Be Bruce Wayne/Dinah Lance and is going to have a supernatural element as it's main plot point, with Jack the Ripperesque murders being the surface level.
> 
> But the Red Son story I'm gonna cook up after that is going to be based around the end of world war two and Batman, an American vigilante recruited through Amanda Waller's use of blackmail, to work for the U.S government in 1). Preventing the Soviets from getting an atomic bomb, and 2). Finding a way to neutralize the so called Comrade Superman. But, he's going to be assigned a partner. A few candidates
> 
> 1). Tatsu Yamashiro, a disgraced Japanese officer who was one of the few "capes" that Japan could drum up during the war for their propaganda efforts. When she turned on the IJA after witnessing war crimes, she was effectively ousted and was only saved from Execution by the timely intervention of United States Marines. Alone and jaded, she doesn't believe in such things as love. Only a brotherhood that she feels she betrayed. Her heart cost her everything. Can it be put back together?
> 
> 2). Might be controversial because she's a lesbian but...I've changed that around for this story as well so...screw it. Renee Montoya, a.k.a the Question. A former vaudeville actress who was never able to land any big roles due to her hispanic heritage. A master of disguise, expert marksman and a cunning linguist, she volunteers for clandestine missions that are not even recorded by the history books. A master of seduction as well, she yearns for someone to let her take center stage in their heart.
> 
> 3). Shayera Hol, a Thanagarian sent to Earth to monitor us, see if we posed a threat to Thanagar. A soldier at heart, she joined the allies, wanting to fight for what was right and good, regardless of where it was. She was one of America's front line capes. However, with the end of the war, she doesn't feel that her work is done and sees in the Soviet Union, a regime that is just as evil as the Nazis, though less honest. She wants to ensure that Nazi terror isn't replaced with Red Terror and sees the plight of the people of Poland as particularly irksome. Doesn't like appeasement and doesn't recognize war weariness. She agrees with Patton. Keep pushing east. After that? She doesn't really know. If she finds the right guy maybe she'll give the white picket fence American dream thing a try.
> 
> 4). Helena Bertinelli. An Italian communist who fought the fascist regime in Italy. However, she doesn't like Stalin. Or Tito. Or Kun. Or really, any of them that think they can boss Italy around. Fiercely nationalistic despite her bolshevik leanings, she wants to keep Uncle Joe BEHIND his borders. With her crossbow she's deadly accurate, which makes her a silent killer. She is passionate and yearns for one thing. A peaceful life on her familiy's farm, with a loving and hopefully rich husband and many children. Hey, who said she couldn't be a hypocrite? 
> 
> 5). Tora Olafsdottir. A born and bred Monarchist, this ice queen wants to sit on the throne of an empire that stretches from her home country of Norway to Finland. Hates communists, and that's why when the Soviets invaded Finland in 1939 she rushed to the defense of her hoped for countrymen. She fought in the continuation war as well, developing a camaraderie that allows her to see the Germans as people, and not monsters. People however, are capable of monstrous things, and in 1944 she led Finnish forces in expelling the Germans from what she considers HER lands. She didn't like the agreement they signed with the Soviets, and she considers all treaties made with those who break faith nonbinding regardless. Naive but passionate, she will fight for what she believes in, and she'll stand her ground no matter what. She also wouldn't mind a handsome man to keep her warm on that undoubtedly cold throne she aspires for.
> 
> Let me know what you guys think or if you have any suggestions. I feel these might've been lame choices :/

**_Just Outside Wayne Manor_ **

Jason sat in his car, not exactly knowing what to do. He couldn’t exactly walk into the cave and use the computer like he used to. That would spark too many questions, and it was his mom and dad so he definitely knew they’d be questioning him on why he wanted to use the computer.

He couldn’t ask his aunt or uncle either, as they wouldn’t exactly keep silent about the issue. Neither would Alfred or his grandmother. 

He was stuck, and he didn’t know what to do.

He looked down at the usb drive in his hand, the drive that contained all of the information he needed to examine from that night at the train yard. He turns it over in his hand a few times, trying to collect his thoughts.

A knock on the window sets him into panic mode though, and he turns to see someone, or rather a trio of people, standing outside of the car. Martha smiled widely at her brother, unable to hide her excitement at seeing him today.

“Jason!” she calls out happily, causing the young man to let his state of alertness relax. This wasn’t a threat, just his little sister and her escort of Nubia and Artemis.

“Hey kiddo” he says through the window, motioning for the trio to back up and allow him out. He opens the door and steps onto the gravel, barely able to prepare herself before the girl throws herself at him, hugging him tightly.

“Ohh...miss me or something?” he teases, stroking his hand through her hair. She just nods and smiles up at him, ecstatic to have her big brother back at Wayne Manor, even if it was undoubtedly going to be a short visit. She looks into the interior of the car and expects to see Jenny, her smile falling when she doesn’t.

“Ohh...where’s Jenny?” she asks sadly. 

“And here I thought you wanted to see me”.

Martha had a look of horror on her face, fearful that she’d upset her brother by asking where Jenny was. “No! Jason of course I’m happy to see you, just curious about why you’re here..usually you’re here with Jenny for family dinners”.

He hated that Martha had gotten her intelligence and abilities of discernment from her parents, who the respective king and queens of that in this city at least. ‘World’s greatest detectives making another good detective. Shocker’ he muses to himself before delaying the moment where he’d have to answer by greeting the two Amazons.

“Nubia. Artemis. How’s it going today?”

“It is well Jason” Artemis says, being much more conversational and open than her darker skinned compatriot who just nods, maintaining a solemn watchful gaze over her charge. Martha though, hadn’t forgotten her question, and she turns back to Jason, still expecting it to be answered. 

“Well sweetie...to be honest…” he says, moving onto his knees and smiling at the shorter, though not by much anymore, girl. “I just wanted to get away from school. Books can be boring sometimes”.

  
Martha smiles at that, indeed knowing that books weren’t quite as enjoyable as practicing her sword swing or archery. 

“So….hows your training going Wonder Woman? Also, where is everybody?” he asks, curious why nobody else had come out to meet him.

“Mom is at work, helping Uncle Harvey”.

The last part was spoken quietly, an unvoiced fear and worry in the girl’s heart for one of her favorite uncles. Jason concurs and rubs her shoulder, moving back to his feet to begin walking with his sister to the house.

“Dad is at Wayne Enterprises and he took Mary with him”.

“Uhhmm...she really loves that place doesn’t she?”

Martha nods. “Yeah. She really wants to be CEO there one day. She probably will. She’s smart with things like that”. Jason smiles, indeed knowing that despite being the more jovial of the twins, Mary was also the much more academic of the two.

“Nana and Alfred are out. I guess they just wanted some time alone and it is their day off”.

He nods at that, happy that so many were out of the manor. “And Vic and Dinah?”

“Gone too” Martha says with a shrug. “They took their kids to some sort of weird science exhibit that Uncle Vic wants them all to see about fluoride” she says, indeed making the boy think that that was something Vic would do. “He wanted to bring everyone but mom put her foot down on that one. She doesn’t want us to be afraid of tap water”.

“Good old mom”.

  
They enter into the mansion through the front door and Jason, as usual, is brought back by how many happy memories he had of this place. His family.

Part of him begins to get angry with himself for letting things get the way they were, so far away from them. He tried over the years, and he tried hard, to forgive them for what happened. It wasn’t their fault after all, they were trying to protect him.

‘But you still put on a mask and jumped off into the night’ he thinks to himself with a smile, his anger melting away at them, the lingering remnants he had anyways, at that moment. ‘I’m my parents son’.

“So...did you hear the news? I don’t know if they called to talk to you about it” Martha begins cautiously. “What news?” he asks. “I haven’t heard anything”.

Nubia and Artemis cast a glance at one another before allowing the girl to brace herself, not knowing exactly how the young man would react. “Mom and dad...Uncle Vic and Aunt Dinah...Aunt Pam too...they’re retired”.

“What do you mean retired?” he asks, not exactly understanding what the young girl was saying.

“They hung up their suits for the last time” she clarifies. “There isn’t a Batman, Batwoman, Black Canary, Question or Poison Ivy anymore” she says while taking a breath to catch up from the staccato of names she’d rambled off so quickly.

“Huh” Jason responds, placing his hand on the wooden bannister. 

“I never expected them too”.

The news had indeed rocked him, and he didn’t know rightfully what to say about it. No more Batman? Batwoman? His mom and dad were just going to be normal people? Well as normal as they could be. Relatively normal.

‘That means they’ll be checking in on you a lot more’ he thinks to himself, realizing that the improbable had just become impossible. ‘I’ll break it to them that I’m Azrael. Soon’.

He keeps playing with the USB in his hand, twirling it between his fingers and drawing Martha’s attention. “Hey...what’s that?” she asks, causing him to look down to see that she was pointing out the usb drive.

He pulls it up to his face and realizes that he had a chance.

“Ohh this...well...actually, it’s kind of a secret”.

She was a Wayne through and through.

He knew that that sentence alone would have her hooked. 

And it did.

Martha’s eyes go wide as she looks at the usb drive with a renewed interest, seeing it as now more of an item or intense study rather than just one of curiosity. “Well, I wanted to make a bit of extra cash so I’ve been moonlighting as a Private Eye. Looking up on boring things really” he explains, hating that he had to lie to his sister like this. 

“Nothing big. Usually just a missing cat or something. It pays alright though. Recently, a friend of mine from school started to suspect that his girlfriend was cheating on him. I left a camera hidden in his dorm and got some footage” he says.

“Why can’t you view it on your laptop?” she asks suspiciously. 

Jason knew that it would be hard to finagle this by her, she was Bruce Wayne’s daughter, but she was nowhere near as hard as Bruce or Harley to circumvent. “You know my laptop didn’t allow me two way viewing” he explains. “It’s not the batcomputer. It doesn’t have signal strength”.

She seems to be convinced by that line of argument and nods, but she picks up on one word he’d used. 

“Didn’t?”

“Yeah, I broke it” he explains. “I haven’t really had the money to buy a new one either so I’ve been counting on this case in order to get it”.

“Why don’t you just ask mom and dad?”

“I don’t want them to think I’m mooching off of them” he explains. “I want them to know I can be my own man. I can’t do that if I’m always around scrounging for money”. Martha nods solemnly, thinking that Jason’s efforts were noble in nature. 

“Actually...I came by to use the batcomputer real quick” he says. “It’ll be able to copy the info I’ve got crisp and clear and put it onto a disk for my buddy. I’m sure his girlfriend isn’t cheating but...hey...gotta know for sure in order to get paid right?”

Martha seemed like she was caught between a rock and a hard place, part of her wanting to enforce the rules of nobody being allowed in the cave except when they were there, and the other part of her wanting to be an assistance to her brother. 

The latter won out.

“Alright!” she says with a smile. 

“You’re an angel Martha” he says, tussling her hair. “Just don’t let mom or dad know okay? I don’t want them to get mad at me”.

“They wouldn’t get mad at you Jason” the girl says sagely. “They might even be happy you came for help. They miss you. A lot”. There was a tone of disappointment in her voice that stabbed right to the center of Jason’s heart. He hated the idea of them missing him.

Part of him always thought that they’d eventually move on from caring. That they’d recognize him as just a street urchin they helped out. It wasn’t like that though, and only recently had Jason stopped hiding under this idiotic idea. 

“I...I wanna come around more. Especially if we’re all not doing the superhero thing anymore” he says, finding that he meant that. Part of him longed for the warm Wayne get togethers that used to be a staple of his life. Now? He could do it with Jenny.

Images of a future Christmas spent with everyone in the living room as was usual filter into his mind and he didn’t find the thought at all unappealing. 

“Well then, don’t talk about it. Just do it”.

  
Martha was always very blunt and on point with her words. He was proud of her. “Alright kiddo. I will then. Now, I’m going to head down and go take a look at the files.....”.

“Can I come with you?”

He knew he’d hit this stumbling block, and he’d already come up with a plan to get around that as well. “Sorry Martha, but well...it’s adult stuff”. He casts an eye towards Nubia, hoping to enlist her help with this as he knew she would catch his meaning. 

Martha places her hands on her hips and makes a noise of disapproval. “I know what sex is Jason. I’m not four”.

He blushes at hearing that word off of the girl’s lips, who only yesterday it seemed had been asking him for piggyback rides. Now? Well, she was turning into a woman. That was hard for him to swallow, but, Martha always had been mature beyond her years.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I want you to see it...or even think about doing it squirt”. 

She acquiesces at this and shrugs. “I didn’t want to see your friend’s girl cheating on him anyways” she jokes back, punching him in the shoulder. He was surprised by the wallop she packed, and he moves back a few feet, rubbing the spot where she’d hit him. Her eyes go wide in worry and she rushes forward to grab his arm. 

  
“Jason, ohh gods! I’m so sorry! I just sometimes forget how strong I am and…”.

“Hey , hey, easy there Wonder Woman” he jokes, still rubbing the spot. “It’s alright. Ain’t the first knock I’ve taken and it certainly wont be the last” he shrugs. Martha is calmed by this, and even lets loose a smile of her own.

“I guess that’s right huh? Being Robin and all”. She grows suddenly serious. “Do you miss it?”

His nods a bit, casting his eyes downward and continuing to do so. “Every day really”.

“Do you miss Barbara?”

Martha was trying to remain stoic, but the wound, especially for how young she was when it happened, was still comparatively fresh. “Every day Martha. Every single moment of every day”. He reaches out and rubs her shoulder.

“But...life goes on, and we have to too. She’d want that. In fact she’d yell at either of us if we started moping and stopped living” he says, causing the girl to begrudgingly admit that as the truth. He takes a deep breath and lets her go. “Alright Martha, well, I better get to work. Quicker I’m down there, the quicker I’m done” he says.

“Will you stay for dinner?”

He wanted too, and the pleading tone in the girl’s voice only added to that desire, but he had patrol tonight. He was going to go out looking for this so called “Huntress” and bring her down before she did anymore damage. ‘Something tells me her plan is bigger than just a few attempted bank heists’ he thinks to himself, turning back to the girl.

“Unfortunately no Martha. Not tonight but how about tomorrow since I don’t have classes, I’ll come and pick you and Mary up and go get dinner at your favorite place. We’ll go to Red Robin huh?”

She frowns at being brushed off for tonight, but smiles wide at the thought of going out to dinner with her big brother tomorrow. “Alright! Sounds like a plan!”.

“Just us three junior Waynes huh? Give mom and pops some time alone to do what old retired people do. Eat prunes and play bingo”.

“They’re not that old!” she protests.

Jason just walks away, moving towards the grandfather clock that hid the entrance down to the batcave. “Pfft..they will be soon enough” he calls out, listening to the quiet whooshing sound that signified the device was working.

The clock begins to slide to the side of the wall it was on, revealing the dark entrance that gave way to steps, leading down into an even more oppressive blackness. He knew that there was something going on, and he had to get to the bottom of it.

The clock closes behind him, and he loses the smile that the playful teasing with Martha had put there.

He had a bad feeling about this.

**_Arkham Asylum_ **

“Harvey...you’ve never talked about your past”.

Harleen knew that they were getting to what was going to be a very difficult part of her friend’s therapy, and she wasn’t sure that it would be totally helpful but at the end of the day they had to get to the bottom of where Big Bad Harv was coming from.

Most likely? It was in the past.

The man remains silent though, opting to not say anything. Instead his hand begins to shake a bit, something she noted. “How is the city doing?” he asks, going on an off subject tangent.

She knew he was stalling, but for the moment she’d allow him too. In all likelihood he was waiting for the right moment to begin talking.

“It’s doing well Harvey” she says. “Deputy Mayor Thomas is doing just fine”.

“You mean Mayor Thomas” he says, causing Harleen to nod. “Well, yes Harvey”.

“People don’t hate me for stepping down do they? Do you?” he asks, a cloying nervousness, desperate for assurance in his eyes. “Harvey...no. Nobody hates you for doing what you have to do to get better. Nobody blames you”. She reaches across the table and takes his hands in her own, forcing him to look at her. “You’ve done enough for this city Harvey. You hear me? We’re all so proud of you”.

He smiles lightly at that, but then looks away, knowing that he couldn’t just keep stalling forever. “You wanted to know about my childhood?”

“Yes Harvey”.

“Do you think it’ll help?”

She nods again, affirming that she indeed did think it would help. “I do. You haven’t told anybody Harvey. Not even Pamela. That worries me”.

“It’s not a pretty story” he warns.

“I’m the warden of Arkham Asylum Harvey” she soothes. “Trust me. There isn’t anything you can tell me that is going to shock me sweetie”. She looks around and shakes her head at her surroundings, taking in the aged brick walls that were decaying more and more by the years. “If these walls could talk huh?”.

Harvey smiles a bit and shakes his head. “That’s the same for any house really. Especially the one I grew up in”.

She remains silent, knowing that he was about to speak. When he looks up, tears are already forming in his eyes. “My dad...I don’t know who he is. Where he went. All I know is...my mom hated him and because I looked him, she hated me too”.

Harleen already felt a rock form in the pit of her stomach, never having seen Harvey cry before. It was hard to watch such a strong man break, but if he had to break she’d encourage him to break. Only because she would be right there to help him put himself together again.

“Tell me about what happened Harvey”.

His takes on a solemn expression as soon as he moves up into the seat again. He straightens out and his features are clenched up a bit in anger. “You should ask what didn’t happen instead” a deeper voice asks, letting her know that Harvey was letting Big Bad Harv handle this.

‘He’s pushing all his negative emotions onto his other psyche….’ she thinks, already making ground. She jots it down but remains focused on Harvey. ‘It’s manifesting in a very violent way. No wonder. He’s kept it in so long...he might blow’.

“Harvey got burned with cigarettes, beaten, whipped, starved. Hehe...she used to throw the poor fucker into a dog house for pissing the bed. I guess she thought it was his fault he wasn’t toilet trained at six or some shit”.

“Harvey isn’t the sum of the abuse he experienced” Harleen says, playing along and acknowledging the angrier part of Harvey as a legitimate entity. ‘First, gotta acknowledge the construct so Harvey knows that what’s behind it is real and valid’.

“Heh...you really believe that dumb shit you just said Harleen?” he asks. “He’s still just the sobbing little boy wondering why his mommy didn’t love him. Pathetic. Should’ve killed himself...not that he didn’t try a few times. Pussied out”.

Harleen was shocked by that, though it fit that Harvey, not knowing how to properly manage his anger, would’ve acted out in violent ways. Many might try and hurt others, but Harvey fell into the category of attempted self harm.

“Well he shouldn’t be wondering that” she says in a challenging tone.

“Ahh, so even you see how pathetic he is. Good. Thought that might be a challenge” the alter ego admits, comfortingly crossing his leg over the the other, feeling a sense of ease. ‘That’s right...get comfortable. I’m about to screw this guy up for you Harvey’.

“You know, he actually thought about making a pass at you the first time you met him” Harv says. “Thought he had a chance”.

“He would’ve” Harleen says, deciding to turn this game back around on him. “But...I was already taken. Aside from that, Harvey has a smokin’ hot bombshell for a wife. And she loves him very much”.

A scowl comes onto his face, and Harleen already starts thinking. ‘He seems to not like people responding positively to Harvey’ she admits, letting it dawn on her. ‘He subconsciously knows that if Harvey isn’t angry anymore, he goes poof! That’s why he reappeared after all these years. The election, and with Pam running around in spandex with me...and the kids going through those phases where they don’t need him as much? Damn..he had no safety nets anymore’.

She looks back the man, doubling down. “You know...Red told me that Harvey is the best lover she’s ever had”.

“News to me” Harv says, seething.

“Ohh well it’s true. Yeah. She said that he’s just so kind and considerate. She told me once that she loved how before the two go to bed, Harvey will close his book and turn over onto his side and just watch her read...wanna know what he says to her?”

“I already know dumb bitch” Harv snarls. “He’s me”.

“Nah, it’s more like you’re part of him. Not the other way around” she snickers. “You’re a tumor Harv. A parasite. But Harvey? Ohh what a dream he is for Pam. He always tells her to not let him bother her. He just wants to look at perfection”.

It was clear that Harv was uncomfortable with how things were going for him, and it showed. “She just hugs him then, but she confided in me that sometimes she has problems telling him just how much she loves him. She says that he’s the perfect man for her. Her words exactly were...hmmm...now what were they?”

“Harvey’s nothing but a punk!” Harv says, slamming his fist down on the table. “Ohh yeah…” Harleen says nonplussed. “She says that nature made him just for her, but that she feels that she doesn’t deserve him sometimes”.

“He’s nothing without me!”

“He’s everything without you!” Harleen fires back, causing Harv to back down as the woman leans across the table to glare at him. “Bruce thinks of him as a brother. Alfred and mama see him as an honorary son in law that they’re proud to see married to their honorary daughter. Dinah thinks he’s funny and sweet, and Vic wants him to be president!” she shouts him down, causing the ego to back down even more before trying to rise.

Harleen stops him from doing so and simply continues on with her tirade against him, and on behalf of Harvey. “His kids adore him, even if he doesn’t always show it. In school Harvey Jr. did a presentation on his daddy, the mayor who he sees as a super hero. Harleen jr..my goddaughter, always goes to him for anything she needs to talk about. My kids LOVE their uncle Harvey because he is never too busy to lend a hand and the same goes for Dinah’s brood of monsters”.

Harv was about to retort but Harleen was wearing a much to intense expression for him to go on. “As for me? Harvey has always been one of my best friends. I know him. He’s a man I can trust. The big brother I always wished I had”.

She reaches out and touches his cheek, giving the man inside a sense of warmth while fixing the aspect of his mind in control with her stare, which had softened. “You want Harvey to be alone...he’s not. He is loved, more than he knows. He’s not alone. You are”.

The man begins to convulse in his rage, or rather Harv’s rage, and even the chair shakes as his face begins to turn red and his breathing becomes more and more harsh. “You aren’t alone Harvey. We love you. All of us do”.

The convulsions get stronger and the man’s eyes roll into the back of his head. His breather becomes much shallower, his rage and adrenaline kicking in to create a mental impasse, where he couldn’t talk, but his emotions were too strong. 

  
She rushes about the table, grabbing the modified epi pen with beta blocker medications within that had been designed for just this purpose. 

Patients who were dangerous oftentimes needed the drug to come down off of what was happening to them, and as the chair falls back and shatters, depositing the man on the floor, she knew she made the right call. 

Doyle rushes in just at that moment, seeing what was happening. “Crap doc!”

She doesn’t respond, not just at that minute and instead moves to the floor, cradling the shaking man’s head in her lap while grasping his arm and quickly finding a vein. She plunges the needle into him, and releases the chemicals.

A change is instantaneously seen as he exhales deeply and begins to breath much softer. Harleen continues on though, rubbing across his forehead with featherlight touches. “Shhh...Harvey...ohh sweetie...you’re okay. God, why did you hold all this in for so long?” she asks the now sleeping man, worn out by his fight with his own mind.

  
She turns up at Doyle and smiles. “I found a way to beat the bad guy in this one” she admits, using their terminology for reaching patients. “It was a constructive time. Now? I just need to discuss Harvey’s pain with him when he’s...well, him” she says, hopeful about his future. “Get a gurney please sweetie. I wanna take Harvey back to his cell. Get him tucked in. I have some unorthodox treatment plans”.

Doyle takes a second to move into the hall, summoning a medical orderly with a cart. Due to the cut backs on staffing costs, their employees weren’t top notch and most of them were teenagers trying to make a buck. Still, she didn’t complain. They had to make due with what they had, and considering how small Arkam had gotten in scope of operations? It wasn’t that glaring of an issue. 

“Doc...everything with you is practically unorthodox. You’re the most unorthodox doctor in Gotham”.   
  
The metal cart is rolled in, and Harleen gets a grip on Harvey’s head, wanting to make sure that he wasn’t hurt when they lifted him up, while Doyle grabs his legs. Together, moaning and groaning the entire way, they’re able to get him up onto the gurney without the help of the obviously uninterested teen.

“We’ve had a very productive day Harvey” she says, making the wheel him out, not even trusting the kid to do that correctly or with compassion. 

  
“It’s gonna get better though. You’ll see. Big Bad Harv doesn’t realize he’s messing with Big Bad Harleen, and I loves ya like a brother so I’ll be going to hell and back for ya. Hope you’re listening in there” she teases, her and Doyle maneuvering the gurney through the halls.

He doesn’t answer naturally, being essentially knocked out by the massive mental anguish he had just undergone. It hurt to imagine that Harvey was abused all those years...but she could understand. More than understand.

‘Jeez, all of us adults had really shitty childhoods huh Harleen?’ she asks herself, happy that she could have at least given her children a much better one than she herself had gotten. Harvey was doing the best for his children as well, though he wasn’t letting himself realize that apparently. 

She stops as they get to their desired location, a comfy cell that she’d outfitted just for him, kitten calendars and all. 

She unlocks the door and moves the gurney inside, turning back to Doyle and looking at him pleadingly. “Aww crap, alright. One last haul for Mr. Mayor from me tonight” he says with a smile, helping the woman heave him into the bed.

As soon as he was on it, she works on fixing the pillows and adjusting the blankets so that he was perfectly secured and comforted. “There we go. Snug as a bug Harvey. Snug as a bug”. She leans in and kisses his cheek, feeling close to the man now that he’d opened up a bit, even if it was through Harv.

“You’re gonna be okay”. 

With that she exits the room and turns out into the hallway, allowing Doyle to lock up the cell once again, clicking off the lights and leaving Harvey to rest.

“One hell of an unorthodox doctor” he says to himself, the aged guard who was now head of security, shaking his head in bewilderment.

Harleen just smiles and presses her glasses back over her nose, having had them fall down a bit in all her movement. After that she puts her hands in her pockets and walks away, moving back to her office to take notes and come up with a treatment plan for Harvey.

“Well...it’s one unorthodox city”.

**_Olympus Diner_ **

Ares was nervous.

Adriane didn’t like it when her husband was nervous. It served to put her on edge. That is...until she reminds herself of why he’s nervous.

And by then she’s nervous of her own accord.   
  


Still she tries to put a brave face on. “Come now my love” she soothes, reaching out to rub his back. “It’s just your parents. It’s not a big deal at all” she says aloud while thinking, ‘Gods please let this go well’.

She was not worried about Hera. In fact, she knew that the woman would do everything in her power to make this go well. His father however….that was a different story.

“My father” he begins. “Zeus, king of the gods...who hasn’t been out to the planes of the mortals for over...I don’t know, when was Diana conceived? Whatever, I don’t care. All I know is the last time he was out was over a thousand years ago, and that was to go to Themyscira for what the young people call a booty call with Hippolyta”.

She was confused by such a term, and had to ask. “What is a booty call?”

“Some kids in one of the booth were talking of it the other day” he says with a shrug. “I think it’s a date or something like it where the intent is only to screw”.

“How disgusting. Of course a man would say…”.

She noticed him smiling and felt that she had put her foot in her mouth yet again. “It was a girl who said it wasn’t it?” He doesn’t answer, but the smiling nod is all it takes to let her know that she was on the money.

“Hera help me…” she says, pushing her hand to her head as their daughter approaches, a toy in her hand. “Daddy can you fix this?” she asks, handing up the Barbie doll she played with to the man. He smiles down at her and gently takes it, seeing that it was once again the hand that just refused to stay on. He squeezes it gently, and pops the ball joint back into place before hand the doll back.

“There you are lamb”.

“Thanks daddy” she says while rushing off back to her brother, both busily playing with their respective toys in the corner. He smiles after her and Adriane shakes her head. “It makes me so worried” she admits. “The world that’s waiting out there for those two. We fought evil, and won...but so much of it remains...and it’s practically normalized”.

He takes her hand in his own and gently caresses her skin. “I’m not worried”.

“Why?”

“They’re their mother’s children”.

Those words made her blush and the baby seems to sense it, beginning to kick once more. “Well...their father is also quite...adept at making the right choices”.

“From you? That’s the highest compliment”.

They can’t go on anymore as the bell that signals the opening and closing of the front door rings, and the two turn to see a couple walking in. The woman was wearing a long sundress and a shawl, a wide hat perched atop her head.

“Burrr...I forgot it was so cold her during the winter season. Not at all like Greece...at least Southern Greece”.

The man was wearing a tattered coat and pants, a flat cap perched atop his head to hide his features. “Huh! Yaya!” Harmonia yells, ready to take off from the table and rocket into her godly grandmother before she stops and remembers Aesop, who was still struggling to get out of the booth.   
  
When he finally gets down, he raises his little arms and opens and closes his fingers saying “yaya!” as well. Hera was already on her knees, more than prepared for the onslaught of her grandchildren. She wraps her arms around them as soon as they get to her, holding her tight. 

Ares gulps audibly, realizing that Zeus was beside his mother. While he often saw his mother, he hadn’t seen his father...well, he couldn’t count. Not since sometime after the Peloponessian war ended he would guess if he had too.

‘He never did forgive me for helping the Spartans win that one...Athena neither’.

He feels Adriane grab his hand and squeeze, comforting him immensely as his pregnant wife moves up beside him. “Let’s go beloved. Face them as you do the battlefield”.

“With you? All is possible” he admits, feeling bolstered by her being there. He advances until they are before his parents, and Hera is the first to notice. “Ohh Adriane…” she says with a wide smile, moving close to hug the pregnant woman gently. “You look positively gorgeous” she says, looking down at her stomach.

“I do not feel so my goddess”.

“Ohh stop that” Hera chides. “Just call me Hera”. She turns to her son and reaches out for his cheek. “And my son. Handsome as ever”.

“Hello mother” he laughs, placing his hand over hers and smiling. She teases him by poking his own stomach. “You aren’t pregnant too are you?” she asks, causing him to laugh. “Not mother. Just enjoying too many burgers I suppose”.

“Well, from god of battle to the god of the grill. What a promotion my dear!”

“You dare attach the name of Olympus to this...place?” Zeus asks, casting a snide look of disapproval around before he steps forward to meet his grandchildren. “And you are Aesop and Harmonia, are you not?”

Harmonia nods, the little boy hiding behind his big sister. “Yes sir” she says politely, shaking her head. Zeus slowly smiles and reaches out to hug them as well. “Well, you are quite the respectful little girl. I can only attribute that to your Amazonian mother. I doubt my son would have any positive trait to pass off to you”.

“Zeus!” Hera hisses, while Adriane was fuming, ready to find her sword and run the man through for insulting her husband. She is only quieted by a pleading look from her husband. He wanted peace for the sake of the children.

She nods and keeps mum, not wanting to stir the pot. 

“Hello father. Welcome to the Olympus Diner” he says calmly. 

“A diner? You were once a god Ares. It is pathetic…”.

“How about I show you to a table?” he asks, directing the question to his mother who smiles openly. “Yes! That would be amazing! Wouldn’t it Zeus?”

“Hmmph”.

Adriane suddenly regretted asking Ares to invite his father. 

_“Make amends. Be at peace! He’s your father”._

‘You look like an idiot now Adriane’ she thinks, admitting that her husband was right in this regard. ‘He’s starting to get the one up on me more and more’ she laments as an aside. “Very good. Follow me. I just got in a few lobsters. I know how you and father enjoy such fare”.

“As if you know how to cook them”.

“Zeus!”

‘Ohh Ares...get through this my love’ she thinks, seeing the temple on her husband’s side beginning to throb. She doubted that even she, with all her patience, would be able to stomach a full hour with the man.

**_The Batcave_ **

“I l….”

The sounds of the train were still disrupting the signal, no matter how Jason tried to isolate it. “Dammit” he says aloud, moving his fingers along the keys and once again trying to isolate it.

“Dad was always better at this” he laments, though it gets a little better this time. Now he only hears the sound of the train though, meaning that he’d isolated the wrong frequency. He scowls and moves his fingers over the dial, turning it to the right and then to the immediate left, picking up on low spectrum noise.

It takes a few minutes but he finally cuts out the sound of traffic, the train, and a plane that had been flying overhead at the time, magically still picked up by the audio receptor in his helm camera.

‘Wayne Tech’ he thinks proudly. 

Looking down at the screen, upon which the mouse dangled over the play button. This was it, he’d finally get a working clue.

“Just hope she wasn’t taunting me with something lame” he says, readying himself for the reveal. With a downward push of his right pointer finger, the audio begins to play.

“I love you Jason”.

He pushes the chair back, letting it clatter to the floor as he hears that, standing up now in awe at the screen. It begins to play over and over again, and he just keeps hearing it.

All of Batman’s training begins to really pay off.

He does the math.

Body type, fighting skills, and she knew his name.

How would she know his name? The only possible thing that he’d shown to anyone else, at least anyone else close enough to know him by name, was the sword. 

Only one woman who knew his name had also seen the sword.

“Barbara…”.

“It can’t be…”.

He turns to see that Martha entered the cave, and was looking up at him, shock in her eyes. “Martha…”.

“That’s Barbara?” she asks, pointing towards the still image of the Huntress he’d left up on screen. He didn’t know what to say. The last thing he’d expected was for the girl to follow him, let alone figure out what he was doing.

He couldn’t lie anymore.

“I think so”.

Tears were running down both of their faces now, and Martha slowly moves forward to get a better look at the screen. “How...who….how did you get this…”.

“I can’t answer that right now Martha bear”.

“Bullshit!” she screams, shocking him as he’d never heard her curse. She grabs his hand and fixes him with a teary stare. “Barbara is alive, and you knew?”

“I only just found out Martha…I swear”.

He didn’t see the lasso of truth wrapped around a loop at her waist, though she was aware of its presence, having come down to not only spy but train with it. Now she would use it to get a straight answer out of him.

She quickly wraps it around his waist, pinning his arms to his side and squeezing it tight. Jason falls to his knees, squirming but unable to get away. “Martha…”.

“How long have you known?” she asks fiercely.

He knew that the lasso would force the truth out of him, and now he was doubly glad that he’d given it to her seconds before. “I just found out Martha. I promise”.

She squints but continues on.

“Why is she dressed like that?”

“She’s a criminal known as the Huntress now”.

“I don’t believe you!” Martha screams uselessly, knowing that he was telling the truth. He had no choice. “Barbara isn’t a criminal! She’s a hero!”

“She was leading a bank heist” Jason continues, all fight and resistance going out of him.

“And how do you know this?”

“Because I stopped it”.

“How?”

“As Azrael”.

  
She was left with even more questions, and that wasn’t helping her fragile state of mind. “Who is Azrael?!” she screams, pulling it tighter and causing Jason to wince. “The...defender of Gotham...fighter for it’s soul. God’s chosen. His disciple in the city”.

“And you’re him?”

He nods. “I’ve trained for years to become him”.

“Does Bruce or Harleen know?”

He looks up at her, staring deeply into her eyes to let her see that he was telling her the truth regardless of the lasso’s influence. “No”.

Martha was crying harshly now, and she drops to her knees, letting the lasso go slack and dirtying her pants on the floor. “Barbara….she...this isn’t right” she says. “Something’s wrong. Barbara is a good guy. She wouldn’t help criminals. She wouldn’t…..”.

As soon as the lasso falls away from his arms, he rushes forward and hugs his sister tightly. “Martha…”.

“Why are you hiding things from us?” she asks through her tears. “We’re your family! You...you…”.

“I wont” he says, knowing that that was a much larger commitment than he should be making. “Not anymore. I promise. I’ll tell everyone what’s going on. For now...I have to find a way to save Barbara. She’s dangerous. Not herself. I’ll make sure that she’s okay and gets back to us Martha. I promise”.

He continues to hug his sister, hating that it had come to this. 

He couldn’t continue alone.

**_Unnamed Ship, Thirty Miles off of Gotham’s Coast_ **

“The bat humiliated your men” Ras says, swirling the glass of wine around in his hand, enjoying how the liquid moves within it. “Cast them out. In fact, the whole city threw them back into the waves as if they were nothing more than pebbles”.

The hulking man who stood behind him simply grunted in anger, though that was the only thing he let loose. “They were brave men. Mi hermanos. They will be avenged”.

  
Ras smiles and turns back to him, curiosity in his gaze. “Now, why didn’t you do it when you came back to the city after it all happened?” he asks. “I mean...you had the chance, but you didn’t even confront the Batman. Why?”

“The time was not right”.

“And it is now?”

The monster of a man nods and looks down at the head of the League of Assassins as if he was nothing more than a bug to be stepped on. Still, he had to be careful. His army was aboard but the League was needed, if only to pave the way for his victory.

“Si. It is”.

“May I ask why?”

The man smiles under his mask. “Because the bat has everything” he says. “He is comfortable. Happy. Safe with his family. He believes himself untouchable. Now is the perfect time to break him” he says, outlining his rationale. 

“Only once he has lost everything, will he have my permission to die”.

Ras raises his glass and smiles, downing it in one go. “My protege is no doubt at this moment, hurrying along her preparations. I am going to write her once more to make her aware that yet another army will be attacking Gotham. What should I announce you as?”

The hulking man turns and makes his way to the hatch, preferring to mingle with his men, warriors each and every one, dedicated to the ideals of strength. He stops though, his massive hand capable of cracking skulls on the side of the door. He turns his head and looks at the man, utterly only four words.

“Bane of Santa Prisca”

With that he exits the room, leaving Ras to smile to himself. “Yes. Bane. I like that”.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're coming into the beginning of the end folks!  
> Also I forgot to add it because I was so tired but the little miss rope comment is from Vincent Valen! Thanks so much buddy for letting me use it.

**_Eagle Beach, Aruba_ **

“Mmm John?”   
  


“Yeah Mari?” the exorcist asks with a cocky smile as his hands move up and down his wife’s back. “You’re moving a little low don’t you think?” He hadn’t been, his hands only being on her lower back at that point, but her words urge him on even more so.    
  
His hands go even lower, cupping her beautiful ass cheeks in each of his hands as he massages them, moving the barely there bikini bottom to the side and practically wedgying it within her crack to expose more to him.

“Am I?”

Mari was biting her lips in pleasure as he worked out tension that she didn’t even realize she had, moving onto her thighs to begin working on them. “Mmm...maybe not too low then”.

“Want me to go lower then love?”

He begins to run his hands along her legs, stopping only for a moment to squirt some oil into his hands, rubbing it into her skin while slowly moving into a laying down position next to her. He was moving up her back again, moving to the sides to rub at the exposed flesh of her supple and full breasts, hidden only by the fact that she was laying down in the sand.

Her bikini top had been discarded hours ago and was now laying a few feet away in the sand. She was more than content with this. The crashing sound of the waves as they impacted against the beach, the cawing of the gulls, and her husband’s touch.

‘The life of a supermodel does have its perks’ she thinks, trying to keep her mind off of her responsibilities as a member of the Justice Society.

‘Kanjar Roe is still out there. And we have reports of Gorilla Grodd in Afghanistan…’.

John leans into her ear and nuzzles her, giving her a nip and a her rear end a swat for good measure. She lets out an “eep” of surprise and turns to see his grinning face. “You were thinking about things again”.

“Was I?”

He nods. “You always push your tongue out over your upper lip when you think about work” he teases. She turns up towards him, allowing herself to be pinned underneath the man, who quickly supports himself over her by his hands on either side of their blanket.

“Well...get my mind off of it then”.

  
John takes a quick look around at the deserted beach, knowing that this was the off season for the island, not to mention that this was a little used portion of it anyway. It seemed like there was nothing but miles and miles of empty white sand before them, the jungle behind them being the only part that wasn’t so visibly seen.

“Don’t mind if I do Mrs. Constantine”. With that, he leans in and presses his lips to hers, the black woman letting out an appreciative moan against him as her hands move up and down his midsection, taking her opportunity to move lower now, teasing the waist band of his swimsuit.

She smiles wide, thoroughly enjoying the naughty thought of them doing it right then, and right there.

Just as she’s about to reach her hand into his shorts, an all too familiar noise interrupts them from behind. “All right everyone in line, no shoving. Guys! Tom...no. Don’t shove”.

“Aww they’re just excited G. Don’t be too hard on them”.

“Eel, being excited is no excuse to not use manners” the woman responds to her husband as the O’Brien family moves out onto the beach through the trail that snaked through the jungle. Giganta and Plastic man were right behind what appeared to Mari, as a mass of children, though in reality was no more than six. 

They were ALWAYS fighting, and seemed to remind everyone around them of the cartoonish balls of smoke and flying fists that erupted after a fist fight in the looney toons. Mari was the first to act, shoving John off of her and scurrying up, her arm across her breasts to hide her nipples as she scurries for her top. She grasps it in her hands and turns, sliding it on and reaching behind her, unable to get the clip into place.

John, sensing the importance of moving before the O’Brien children saw them, rushes up with the skirt Mari wore around her waist when wearing her swimsuit, in between swim sessions. He trows her around her waist and pins it together, also in a mad panic as he repositions himself in his pants to hide his excitement until it went away.    
  
“Dammit! Of all the fuc….”.

“Mari? John?” Giganta calls out, a wide smile on her fact as she waves excitedly, jumping up and down. “Eel, look! It’s Mari and John!” she says to her equally flabbergasted husband. Mari just managed to get her top secured, and reaches under the skirt to fix her bottoms, hoping that the kids wouldn’t see.

“Ohh? Giganta? John...look who it is!” she shouts out faux excitedly, meanwhile thinking, ‘How the hell are they even here?!’

John was not so good at hiding his shock and anger, and as Plastic Man, though out of uniform, finally reaches him, all he could do was numbly shake the proffered hand. “Heya pal. Small world isn’t it? Running into you two all the way out here? Crazy”.

Giganta and their children came next, each of them carrying some form of luggage for their day at the beach, the woman herself having the rolled up umbrella tucked under her arm. She smiles wide and moves toward Mari, hugging the perplexed woman tightly. “Can you believe it? Of all the beaches in the world and we wind up on the same exact one at the same exact time”.

“Right” John mumbles, already feeling the hankering for a cigarette despite quitting one year ago. “Bloody well unbelievable”.

“Hiya aunt Mari” Tommy says, smiling up at the woman. He was the spitting image of his mother, and apparently had gotten her powers too. Still, his mussed red hair, missing front tooth and all around happy demeanor forced Mari to put on a much more sincere happy expression. “Hi Tommy. Hello other assorted monsters” she calls out, drawing the attention of the other six who all parrot out a “hi Aunt Mari. Hi Uncle John”.

She turns her look back towards Giganta who thought nothing of setting up their blanket right on the ground there and working on corralling her children. “Alright! Everyone line up. Sunscreen time!”

“Awwww…”.

There was a cacophony of disappointment that made Mari want to laugh, though each child dutifully saddles up in a line in front of their mother, allowing her to smear the cold white cream over their faces. Giganta was wearing a typical one piece bathing suit that highlighted her feminine curves very well, though it was red in color.

‘Bleh...hate red’ Mari thinks, remembering when Giganta’s beach wear choices were much less conservative. In the past, her, John and Eel had hung out quite a lot before the arrival of the children in their lives.

‘She wore the skimpiest suits back then’ Mari muses to herself with a smile, remembering how John would try and pretend he wasn’t checking her out, compared against her boyfriend, then fiancee and then husband’s open ogling. ‘Now? She could be a nun. Heh’.

Soon enough the kids are prepared and they rush off to the sea which beckons them forward with its musical call of the surf. “Be careful! No rough housing and….ohh what’s the point. They’re not listening” the redhead says with a shrug, smiling before turning to her friend, still apparently excited over the fact that they were there together.

“I...I can’t believe it” Mari says, voicing yet again the oft repeated sentiment of the day. “I know? Isn’t this amazing?”

“Amazing ain’t the word I’d use for it” John says, setting down beside Mari on their blanket. Eel, seeing his friend’s sour mood, immediately knows how to raise his spirits and says so. “Ahh...sorry if we uhh...interrupted something John but here!”. He suddenly reaches back to the jungle, stretching his arm all the way out and moving it into the trees before retracting it, holding a cooler in his hands.

He brings it all the way back and sets it down on the beach in front of them, opening it to reveal the beer filled contents to the British exorcist. “I bring a peace offering”.

John’s eyes widen and he smiles while reaching in, retracting an slightly warm stout, just the way he liked it. “Sorry..the ice kind of...well...I forgot the ice”.

“No need to apologize mate” he says, twisting off the top and bringing it to his lips. “Ahhh...just the way I like it”.

Mari rolls her eyes and leans into her husband, still a little miffed about their romantic moment being interrupted. “So...what brings you two out here?” Eel asks, wrapping an arm about his wife and holding her close as she takes a beer herself and gingerly sips on it.

“Well...since we weren’t on the active League roster we decided to take a bit of a vacation and we got some cheap tickets to come here” Mari says simply. “How about you?”

“It was the craziest thing” Giganta says with a smile. “Batwoman gave them to me!”

“What?” John asks.

“Yeah. Weird huh? Out of nowhere she says that she got us all a few tickets and wanted us to get away for vacation. Said she got them really cheap too. What a world!”

Mari and John look at each other and laugh, momentarily thinking that the blonde haired heroine had done this on purpose before remembering that they’d did it all last minute and hadn’t told anyone in advance. 

“She does have a habit of being really generous huh?” Mari asks.

“Uhhmm” John moans, downing his beer.

“I’m guessing you guys were here for a romantic getaway?” Giganta asks, finally letting it dawn on her that they’d interrupted something. “Yeah, a bit” Mari says with a laugh before giving her a comforting pat on the shoulder. “Butttt...we have tons of those. Our life could be considered a romantic getaway”.

John shrugs too, letting his anger go as quickly as it had come on, realizing that this was just one of those things that were most likely destined to happen. 

“Still...sorry for messing it up on you guys” Plas, as he called by many in the league says before winking. “Though, maybe we can make it up to you”.

“And how would that be?” Mari asks teasingly.

“Well, we came here for some romantic time as well” Giganta says with a smile. “Tonight they’re hosting a luau kind of things. Couples only the brochure said….TOMMY GET BACK TO NORMAL SIZE!” she shouts at her son who had used his powers to make himself at least forty feet tall.

The boy shrinks down, a sheepish expression on his face. “Sorry mom” he shouts, causing the redheaded woman to wave, telling him it was okay. She turns to Mari and laughs. “He just...really loves using his powers, and his siblings just egg him on” she admits.

“Pfft..hey, if I were him, I’d do the same thing”.

“Yeah, hehe, could see how that could come in handy”.

Giganta glares at the exorcist who has the good sense to look ashamed for his lewd insinuation. He returns to sipping his beer quietly. 

“Anyways” Mari says, a wide smile on her face at how easily the woman had cowed her husband. “This luau thing you were talking about?”

“Ohh yeah, it’s a couples thing. Dancing, dinner, candles. The works. Eel and I were hoping to have some family time but also some time for each other”. The two turn to one another and stare deeply into the other’s eyes, Plastic Man’s arm moving around the woman’s waist multiple times to pull her closer.

“Even after six kids, you two are still in love?” John asks in a shocked way. “I figured you woulda’ hated each other’s guts by now”.

“Pffft...nah. We fight all the time but to be honest? It only draws us closer. I’d rather fight with this goofball than get alone with anyone else” Giganta says, leaning in to nuzzle her husband’s nose.

“Awww…”.

“Yeah well…” John says, rubbing Mari’s back, feeling as if a competition had broken out as to who would be more affectionate with. Everything with Plastic Man and John Constantine was a competition. 

“When’s the luau?”

“Seven?”

“And what about your kids?” Mari asks curiously. “We have it covered. We brought my little sister along” Plas says. “She’s roaming the island now but tonight she agreed to watch our zoo to give us some time alone”.

“Hmm”.

“You guys in?” Eel asks, looking directly at John with a smirk on his face. Mari was uncertain, but Constantine already knew that they had no choice but to go with the other two tonight. “Sure! We’ll be there mate!”

Mari looks at her husband askance but is shrugged off as he reaches around her and gently rubs her taut and toned belly, continuing his massage. Mari moans in pleasure, finding that to be one of the zones that always manages to make her feel better. 

Plas ups the ante by moving around his wife, placing the woman in his lap and massaging her shoulders, causing Giganta to let out similar sounds to Mari. “Sounds good bud” he says over the redhead’s shoulder.

“Yeah...sure does”.

The two men increase their massages and their wives are none the wiser as they urge them on, feeling a release of stress at their touches.

“Ohhh...John….your fingers are angelic”.

“Right there Eel! That feels so nice” 

Yeah. It was on.

**_Apartment of Renee Montoya and Tatsu Yamashiro_ **

Renee sat on the toilet, waiting for the test to read off her results. Tatsu was waiting on the other side of the door, quiet as a church mouse while the hispanic woman’s eyes are fixed upon the screen.

“Come on...come on”.

A few more seconds pass and slowly, almost tortuously slowly, the reading comes out. Her eyes widen as she sees them.

Two lines.

“SIIIII!”

She jumps up off of the toilet and rips the door open, throwing herself into Tatsu’s arms, the samurai shocked as she has to catch her fiancee, though her joy was infectious. Renee grabs her face and kisses it multiple times, the pregnancy test still in her hands.

“We did it! Well, Vic did it! Vic and I...ohh it doesn’t matter! I’m pregnant!”

Tatsu was smiling ear to ear as well, holding the woman tightly and kissing her back. “Hai! This is the most amazing day of my life Renee!” she says, unable to keep a stoic appearance up while she was bursting with joy inside of her.

“Ohhh god….this is so amazing!” 

The woman’s hand goes to her stomach as Tatsu puts her down, and she begins to pace around the apartment. “Ohh...I...I better get cleaning!” she says, smiling and shaking her head. “I have all this energy. I need to get it out. This place needs to be perfect!”.

She quickly moves to the coffee table and begins to tidy up the few magazines they had there, mostly firearm publications. After that she moves into the kitchen, turning on the sink to wash the dishes. Tatsu follows her in a blur, too happy to do anything other than follow the woman who looked even more beautiful, something she never knew was possible until now, that was carrying their baby.

Well, not THEIR baby in the strictest sense of the word, but Tatsu knew that that didn’t matter. Her and Renee were going to be mother’s and their child would be the happiest one to ever live. She sets herself down at the kitchen table, afraid that she might fall, and just smiles, shaking her head back and forth.

“I’m going to be a Haha” she says, lapsing into her Japanese for mother. 

“Tatsu baby, you’re going to be a perfect mama, I can already see it” she says, humming to herself as her hands begin to move over the plates, washing them off with the sponge and soap. “Teaching them, whoever they are...ohhhh! We need to come up with names! How could we have forgotten that? Names...a baby can’t not have a name. That doesn’t fit”.

Tatsu noticed that something was...off with Renee now, and it struck her that rarely did the woman wash the dishes. Usually housekeeping was her domain, considering she was home all day. She really didn’t even trust the woman to use the dishwasher correctly.

But now, here she was. Working at the sink as if she was a born and bred housewife. 

“Renee...are you well?” Tatsu asks, moving up behind her and placing her hands on the woman’s waist. “Perfect. Why do you ask?”

“Ohh...you just seem….a little off”.

“Pfft...never. I’m fine Tatsu. Perfectly fine lover”.   
  
She turns and presses her lips back onto the Japanese woman’s and smiles. “I just...I feel so happy. Everything feels so right and natural now. I mean….it’s just all fitting together”. She moves back into the woman’s arms, who now rubs up and down her sides while her dopey smile returns to her face.

“Yes. It all does seem rather…..”.

She couldn’t find a word to describe how she felt, but Renee apparently already had one right at the tip of her tongue. ‘I’m going to get some plants for the window sill. This place is so dreary now! That wont do. Not with a baby boy or girl. They need to have a happy environment’.

“It’s perfect Tatsu. Perfect”.

Yes, that was the word.

Perfect.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

“What the hell are you thinking?!” Harleen shouts at her son angrily, unable to control what was going through her as they sat up in the living room.

“The same thing you are”.

She turns on him and resists the urge to slap him, something she’d never done in her life. That gives her pause and calms her down slightly. “Jason….his has to stop”.

“It isn’t going to”.

“I’m your mother and I’m telling you it’s going to”.

“You don’t understand mom”.

She goes practically red at that, and she’s about to unload on the boy when Bruce, surprisingly the level headed one here, steps forward and takes her by the arm. He slowly turns her to look into her eyes, soothing the raging inferno that was her soul.

“Harleen…”.

“Bruce...tell him he can’t…” she pleads, tears coming to her eyes. “He doesn’t have to live life like ours. We did this so he wouldn’t have to when he grew up”.

“I was chosen for this mom”.

“Then say no!” she shouts angrily again, breaking from Bruce’s arms and moving to Jason, clamping down on his shoulders and crying fiercely. “You are my son Jason! We put you in danger before. You and Barbara. And look what happened. And now you’re running right back into it!”.

“It’s who I am” he says simply, refusing to back down. “I’m a Wayne. There’s no other way”.

“Make one!”

He’s quiet, but slowly he shakes his head, knowing that that was impossible. She knew, deep down, as well, and that information sinks in. She buries her face in his chest and her son hugs her close, trying his best to soothe her. “Mom….I’m not gonna die”.

“Everyone says that puddin’ pop...everyone says that” she sniffles, trying to stop the tears. “But we don’t have control over that. You’re not like Martha sweetie. Or Konn’r or Blackfire or any of the others”.

“I’m just a man?” he asks, thinking that his lack of powers was what she was implying.

“No…” she corrects. “You’re my son. My only son. My baby boy. You’re right about powers though” she admits. “A flaming sword doesn’t count”.

“Yeah it does”.

Bruce takes this opportunity to smile at Martha who sat on a couch on the other side of the room. “Quiet from the peanut gallery” he says before looking back at Jason. He knew that they had to get to the heart of the matter and move on as quickly as possible.

“There isn’t a way to talk you out of this is there son?”

“No dad”.

The two men look at each other for a moment, gauging the other’s thoughts before the older man sighs and gives in. “You never forgave me for making you give up being Robin did you?” Jason just shakes his head. “I figured that. When I took the suit from you...I took more than just being a hero away didn’t I? I think I might’ve taken a part of who you were away”.

“You did”.

Bruce purses his lips and looks down, not liking to admit when he was wrong. It was one of the few things that truly grated on him. Being wrong. But with his son? He had to be fair.

“Will you ever forgive me for that?”

Silence fills the air and Jason, searching deep within his heart, knows that he already did. He couldn’t stay mad at the man or woman before him. The ones who took him in and gave him a home. Loved him like their own son, and only did what they did to protect him.

But he was a grown man now.    
  
He didn’t need protection. Now? He wanted to protect.

“There’s nothing to forgive Bruce” he says. “God brought me here and gave me the trials he did for a reason. It’s not my place to be angry”.

“There’s only the Greek gods Jason” Martha calls out, drawing her brother’s attention. “Alright little Miss Truth Rope” he jokes. “When you meet the real one, in a thousand years or so, you come and find me and tell me about how great Zeus is, okay?”

Harleen backs up and looks her son up and down, smiling gently. “Azrael is what you’re going by?”

“Yeah. Do you like it?”

She shrugs, wiping the tears away. “Angel of Death? No, not really...but….”. She stops and looks him over, judging what she had to see for herself. “I think you’ll do great things...you never forget where you came from though!” she warns while patting his chest. “You’ll always be one of my little Robins”.

“Tweet tweet” he jokes back, receiving a laugh from his now much calmer mother. She turns serious again while looking up at him. “Now...Barbara” she asks, her lip quivering. “She’s alive?”

“Yes mom...I think she is”.

“What makes you say that?” Bruce asks, his analytical mind working overtime. “Huntress is Barbara dad. I know it” Jason defends. “The way she moves, the way she fights. She knew how to counter many things I did. The only time I seemed to get a drop on her is when I used things that were taught to me by Jason Blood. She wasn’t ready for that...but she knew things I didn’t either”.

“Jason...I don’t believe this is Barbara” Bruce says, his mind unwilling to accept it. “It is Bruce”.

He looks down at the USB drive and tosses it back over towards the man. “She knew my name. And she told me she loved me. Add it all together. Knows my moves, countered them, and only seemed to recognize me when she saw my sword. She also told me she loved me. Who else would that fit?”

“We buried her Jason”.

“Not the real her”.

“Dammit!” Bruce snaps angrily. “She’s dead. She died and…”.

“STOP BLAMING YOURSELF!” Jason shouts, getting into his father’s face and shocking the man. He doesn’t let up though, opting to forge on. “She had all that anger. All that rage in her heart. We tried to help…” he says, looking about the room. “All of us...but it wouldn’t go away. No matter what. Barbara was destined to do something that would’ve gotten her killed”. It hurt him to admit that, as part of his heart, one that felt like it was rapidly growing back to its original size, still desperately loved the girl.

“But what happened...she didn’t die”.

“How could she have come back?” Martha asks, barely holding it together as her mother sets herself down on the couch beside her, holding her tight.

“I...I don’t know. All I know is, she’s here. I’m going to figure out why”.

“Maybe someone knows about you and her” Bruce says, looking for another explanation. “This might all be a rouse. Something to get under your skin”.

“I don’t think so Bruce. Nobody else would know all these things. Not like her”.

Jason begins to move towards the exit of the manor, knowing that he’d have work to do tonight. ‘Especially if the bats aren’t doing it anymore’ he thinks. Bruce calls out to him, stopping him halfway towards the door. “Where are you going?”

“Out on patrol” he explains. “Huntress...Barbara. She’s up to something, and whatever it is she isn’t doing it alone. This is big Bruce. Someone needs to do something. And if Batman isn’t on watch now, it’s going to have to be me”.

“Let me come with yo…” Martha begins, launching herself off of the couch before being yanked back by her mother. “Nope. Not yet sweetie. Jason!” she calls out, wanting to add her own two cents into the pot.    
  
He looks at his mother, waiting for her to speak. “Be careful and...this?” she motions, pointing towards him. “You’re going to have to tell Jenny. Before she puts the Wayne name legally after hers” she says. “Your fiancee deserves to know”.

Jason nods, planning on telling Jenny soon. Very soon.

But how would one approach such a subject? How could he possibly explain that he was taken in by Batman and Batwoman, trained to be a vigilante, and that now he was a whole different person at night?

“I will mom...you’re right. She deserves it”.

Part of him was beginning to question the rationale behind his relationship with Jenny. Was it smart, was it even fair, to bring her into his world? Filled with danger like it was. He also knew that there was no way in hell that she was going to slip into a spandex suit of her own.

With that, Jason leaves the manor, moving back into his car and roaring off towards his dorm room, where the suit of sorrows was securely stashed. Harleen, Bruce and Martha were left alone with the world shaking revelation that Barbara might be alive.

“We need to exhume the coffin” Harleen says, refusing to use the word body or corpse. 

“She’s…”.

“We need to make sure!” the blonde snaps, silencing her husband who seemed to be in denial about the whole thing. She looks at him, seeing the deep pools of pain in his eyes, and feels instantly guilty. “I know this is hard puddin’. I know but...we need to check”.

“Go to your room Martha”.

  
“But daddy…”.

“Please Martha just...please go to your room”.

Martha knew when it was time to listen and now? That was one of those times. She gets up off the couch and advances up the stairs, undoubtedly to go speak to Mary who had been left out of this conversation due to being extremely tired.

It was going to be a hard tale to tell, but it was best if it came from her sister who was an expert at soothing the much more volatile Mary.

“Harleen…”.

“This hurts Bruce” she says, cutting him off. “It hurts more than anything else since the day she died...our little girl is out there, and I have no idea what happened to her. She’d probably hurt, and confused and it sounds like some evil fuck got to her”.

With that she stands up and moves back towards the clock, moving the arms to open it up. “That means that I’m strapping on my big girl suit and going out there to find her and then I’m going to bring her back here”.

Bruce rushes forward, grasping her wrist as if to stop her, prompting her to turn towards him angrily. She sees something else though, and instead of the intent to stop her, Bruce seemed resolute in a wholly different manner.

“Not without me you’re not”.

She smiles and nods, feeling a little less powerless about the whole situation now. “Good. Batwoman doesn’t go anywhere without Batman. Now, let’s go help our Robin get the lost one and complete this family again”.

**_Arkham Asylum Security Desk_ **

The guard was snoozing on the job, something that he would’ve undoubtedly gotten fired for before if they weren’t so short staffed nowadays. The best he could get was a chewing out from Doyle, something that wasn’t pleasant in and of itself, but not exactly the greatest deterrent.

His feet were up on the desk as he leaned back in his chair, the hat over his eyes to prevent any ambient light from waking him.

It turns out that it was a noise that woke him instead.

The doors leading into this wing opened and shut loudly, startling the man and waking him, sending him into an upright position like a bolt of lightning had hit him. Four figures were standing in the middle of the room, and all of them looked like they meant business.

The lead one was dressed in purple armor, her features completely hidden. He could only tell it was a woman by the swell of her breasts and her wide hips. She begins to walk forward, her eyes glued on the sign for the maximum security wing at the far end of the hallway.    
  
“Woah! Woah! Lady! Stop right there!” the man orders, drawing his pistol and aiming it directly at the back of her head. Huntress stops, seeming to do as she was told, and slowly inclines her head over her shoulder to glance at the guard.

“Ravager?”

Before he can react his hand is sliced off, the bone being severed right through. A perfectly clean cut. He screams and recoils back, his other hand moving up to grasp the severed appendage which was now spurting blood.    
  
Ravager, wearing a mask that was half orange and half black, sheathes her blade at her hips, menacing in her black and orange suit sprinkles with all sorts of tactical military gear. Huntress begins to move, followed her lieutenant. 

“Shiva, you and Bronze Tiger stand guard here” she orders, continuing her onward track before stopping again as the guard continues to scream. “And Tiger?”

The man turns and regards his leader, waiting for her next words. “Snap his neck for drawing a pistol on me and sleeping on the job”. With a smile the hulking man moves over the desk and advances on the cowering guard who now pleads for his life.

“Please! Please don...GRKKKK!”

The sickening crunch could be heard as the man breaks the neck, silencing the cries and then returning to the woman who maintained a watch on the door, her arms crossed over her chest as she languidly sways, wanting to remain loose and ready for a fight.

“Not worried the bats will show?” Tiger asks conversationally.

“Not really no”.

“Why?”

“I can take them”.

“Hmm”.

Huntress and Ravager continued to move forward, passing cells were disturbed inmates took note of their presence. One moved towards the bars and rapidly began to bang on the door. “YOU FUCKING BITCHES! I’M TRYING TO SLEEP! I’LL GOUGE YOUR EYE…”.

He didn’t get a chance to finish as Ravager drew her pistol and put one round right between the man’s eyes. He falls back onto the floor of his cell, a loud thud emanating out that helps further disturb the other inmates.

“What….?”

Barbara hears a voice she recognizes and turns to see a face staring out at her through one of the cell’s bars. Her heart almost stops when she sees Harvey’s scarred visage through the bars. He glares at her, not knowing at all what was going on but knowing without a doubt that whoever these people were, they weren’t good guys.

Ravager makes to shoot the man before her hand is forcibly lowered by Huntress, drawing a curious stare from the woman.

“Not him” she says, casting a glance at her uncle who didn’t know it was her. She turns back to Ravager. “We’re only here to send a message”. The platinum blonde nods and looks back towards the sign for the wing where Gotham’s worst and most unredeemable offenders were held. 

“Yes Huntress”.

The two continue on in silence, though Barbara’s mind is left whirling by the fact that her uncle was here. ‘What happened to him?’ she wonders, not having been able to discern much else other than the fact that he stepped down as mayor, the whole incident being kept hush hush within the papers.

She gets to the keypad and retracts the necessary clearance she’d gotten through a network scan. It inputs what is needed and quickly enough the doors begin to open. The two young women step inside, utter mayhem existing within though it is contained inside of the cells.

She draws her crossbow and takes out one of the two guards who were stationed inside at all times, the bolt moving right through his eye and knocking him to the ground. Ravager quickly works on the other one, slicing his head from his neck and taking the master key off of him.

“Is that Johansen?” Huntress asks, looking up and down the cells for the exact person she was in search of. Ravager leans down and checks his name tag. “Uhh no...Thompson”.

“Johansen has the actual key. Thompson has the decoy. If we use that to open these cells the GCPD will know, if they don’t already”.

Ravager moves towards the other body, rifling through the pockets of the other dead man and retracting the actual key. “Alright got it. Which cell now?” she asks before a face appears in another.

“Ohhh what do we have here? A new player coming to introduce herself to ole’ Mr. J” the man teases, drawing Huntress’ attention to the aging crown prince of crime. His time behind bars had done nothing for him, and his hair was slowly receding. He had even gained weight, making him look even more hideously disgusting.

Huntress stares at him, raw rage bubbling up inside of her, though she doesn’t address him, something that the clown finds equally mystifying and annoying.

“Ohh come on now, cat got you tongue?”

Huntress turns to Ravager, looking up at the cell number. “Keep note of this one” she says in her disguised voice. “He’s going to be the center piece of our little display”.

“If you’re going to give me a part in whatever this little shindig is going to be” Joker moans. “You’re going to have to tell me what it is first”. Huntress slams up against the bars, sending the man careening back into the darkness, laughing nervously. He didn’t know why, but this woman unsettled him.

“Geez toots, cut me some slack. Just a little stage fright. hehe...Everyone’s a critic”.

Barbara walks away, looking up and down the rows of cells. Many were familiar to her. Zsasz, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, Great White Shark. A man wearing a makeshift pig mask, snorting to himself as he stares at her through the bars was the only one she didn’t know so far.

‘I helped put half of these guys away’.

“Hey toots! You forgot about me! Come back!”

The Joker’s arm was flailing through the bars, trying for naught to get her attention. She wasn’t focused on him at all. Especially not as she came to the last cell.

A man was kneeling in the darkness, mumbling out prayers to himself. “Deacon Blackfire”. He stiffens up as she speaks his name, managing to keep her voice neutral. The wizened man turns, a smile on his face. “You...you are the angel that the lord promised to send” he says, moving to his feet and shuffling up towards the bars. 

“Open it”.

Ravager moves close and uses the keycard, allowing the door to slide open and the wizened old man to step out into the glare of the artificial light, cast by the overhead lamps. 

“You...you are the angel!” he exclaims, raising his hands which were nothing more than bones. The bleached white bones extend out of his still fleshy, though red and scarred wrist. She remembered how Jason had incinerated his hands.

She remembered that night perfectly.

Without flinching she draws her hand back and slaps the man across the face, sending him reeling to the ground and crying out in pain. “Ahhh! Angel...how have I offended thee?”

She quiets him by reaching down and grasping his throat. “Shut up” she growls, choking the life out of him slowly before tossing him to Ravager. “Get him into the van and then get him to the safehouse. Make sure he’s secured and stays that way”.

“Yes Huntress”.

“What...what is happening?” he gasps out.

“Doom old man” she says vaguely. “I’m an angel. You knew so. But I wasn’t sent by the lord to save you” she says fiercely while making her preparations for what was undoubtedly going to rock the city before the full wave hit. 

“I’m an angel of Death, here to make you pay for your sins”.

Blackfire’s eyes go wide and he panics as Ravager begins to pull him away. “No! No! I am to be saved! I was promised an eternal spot in heaven! It was ordained! It was ordained!” 

Barbara wasn’t listening to him, indeed trying to block him out completely until it was time. She had plans for him. Special plans. But for now? She had to focus on securing the future. Not only for the League but for Jason. 

And herself.

She looks down at the line of cells and smiles evilly under her mask. “Time to clean this city up. Once and for all”.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just wanna ask you guys. I'm using ALOT of dialogue from established Batman media. Is that okay, especially in how I use it? Am I changing it up enough to where it feels new or do I seem like I'm stealing? I dont wanna steal for certain.

**_Gotham Memorial Square_ **

The square held a fair bit of traffic at this hour, and many passersby were going about their business, shopping for dinner or just taking the night air. It was one of the nicest parts of the city, especially after it had been rebuilt following its usage in killing Tantalus and the Amazons.

Gone was the massive crater filled with bodies, and in its place was a massive statue, a memorial to all of those that had fallen to protect Gotham during those dark times. 

It was a place of safety.

Until tonight.

The big screens that dominated the sides of the massive buildings that shot up into the sky usually played out ads for different drinks or fast foods, random assortments of advertisements from companies willing to pay the exorbitant fee to put their brand name on the big screen. But suddenly, the bright colorful lights of those said ads disappear to be replaced by the masked face of the Huntress.

She held the camera close, exposing her entire armored figure for everyone to see, most thinking it was a joke of some kind. Then again, this was Gotham. Most of the veteran Gothamites knew something was happening, and indeed had been preparing for it for a while now.

Nothing could stay safe in Gotham.

“People of Gotham” Huntress begins her address, gaining all of those whose attention she hadn’t captured when she first appeared. Even now her visage was being transmitted onto the television screens and phones of Gotham, ensuring that nobody would miss what she had to say.

“You city was saved” she says solemnly. “Saved, from the consequences of its own actions. Saved from what was rightfully coming to you. Any of the plagues that have taken this city would have culled you of your wicked and cruel. But somehow...through fate and the work of your so called heroes, you survived. You even thrive”.

  
Every face was hanging on her every word, her speech not giving them reason to think that the Huntress was just a new hero in their city.

“That ends. Nothing can save you now from the purifying wave that is coming to you. You have built up a next where criminals once roamed free, killing, raping and stealing with impunity. Your heroes, the ones who stopped them...are even worse, for let me ask you so called good people of Gotham who is responsible for something? The man who commits the crime, or the one who allows them to happen?”

She pauses, looking off screen at her captive, Deacon Blackfire, drawing the cameraman she’d recruited to turn towards the struggling man, imprisoned within his bonds. Beside him was the Joker, also imprisoned.    
  
“I only have two more to complete the collection Batman” she says, turning away from addressing the people to take a moment and address her father. “You know where to go. Where all of this seems to start and end….Azrael...I expect you to be there too. Maybe Batwoman, Canary and the Question, but definitely Batman and Azrael”.

  
She collects herself, keeping her emotions under control. “I have a special message to Batwoman. One that will really bring her back to where it all began. All of this doesn’t make sense to you….Gotham. And good. I don’t want it to. You took everything from me...and now? I’m gonna take it all from you”.

“Let’s see if the Batman can pull off another miracle. Ohh, and just to make it interesting…”.

The camera pans away to a series of divergent video feeds, each showing a bomb, or a device that obviously looked like one, tucked away someplace. “I don’t want any of the other heroes who have made their home in this city screwing up my plans. If I see the Titans or the Society out and about doing anything? They go boom...and with it? Half of Gotham”.

“This is a family matter”.

With that, the video feed cuts, leaving nothing but blank screens for a moment before they turn back to their regularly scheduled ad programs. Nobody wanted to read about coca cola right then though, and the city was rapidly descending into a panic. 

Most of the panic was caused by how little of her plans the new villainess had actually revealed. What was this wave that she said was coming for them? What did any of this mean? What did she want?

They’d get their answers soon enough...but it might be too late by then?

**_Apartment of Dick and Dee Grayson_ **

“My god...puddin’!” the woman says, having been watching the tv screen incessantly, unable to tear her eyes away. Dick was in much the same state, not knowing what to think at all. Both had tried to live life by the rules since being released.

He’d gotten a job as a backstage caterer and Dee had taken up work as a secretary. They both knew that they were laughed at and mistrusted because of their past, and that they’d only gotten their jobs through the city practically forcing their respective employers to take them on, but they’d been exemplary employees so far.

Their apartment wasn’t much. Nothing that they had amounted to much, but in the end they had worked hard for what they had, holding onto it by the skim of their teeth, but indeed still holding onto it.

Now? 

This.

“That was the Joker” Dick says, uncomfortable at seeing the man who was the reason for his green hair and white skin, and indeed by extension Dee’s. He still felt guilt when looking at his wife, knowing that he’d pulled her into this just as much as the Joker had done to him.

She reaches out and takes his hand, squeezing it tightly as they sit on the couch. “Yeah. It was. Are you okay?”

“I...I haven’t even thought of him in so long…” he admits. “I blocked him out. I couldn’t think of him because if I did...I was afraid I’d go back to being Jester”.

“Sweetie...you ain’t ever going down that path again! I promise. We’re going to be okay” Dee says, trying to put on a brave face. “We’re all gonna be okay. Batman and the rest of those guys will sort this out!” she says, before her smile frowns and she winces. “I can’t believe I’m now openly routing for the Batman”.

That makes Dick laugh, though it wasn’t the maniacal laughter of the past. No, it was a gentle laugh, showing that he found something genuinely funny for other than homicidal reasons. “You’re right...we gotta stay positive”.

The doorbell rings, drawing both of their gazes to the rear of the apartment where the door was. “Who could that be?” she asks worriedly.

Dick sighs and shakes his head. “Probably our parole officer” he says, placing his hands on his knees and rising up to walk towards the door. “He thinks that because we saw the Joker on tv that we’re gonna go bonkers again”.

“We ain’t caged tigers you know!” she shouts, remaining on the couch and worriedly tracing her lips with her finger, a mental tick of hers that allows her to remain calm. “I know honey bun. I know”.

  
Dick was just about to reach down and turn the handle of the door when the wood is pushed in violently, shattering and splintering while the hinges break off. The remnants of the door fall atop Dick, pinning him to the ground already before Huntress steps in and places her foot atop the wood. 

Her added pressure ensures that he can’t get up, and he turns to look at the woman standing atop him as she glares back down at him. Huntress tilts her head, studying the man who’d in her eyes essentially gotten away with his crimes. 

“Hello Jester” she says, her voice as usual control by the modulator in her helmet.

“Who...urrkkk...who are you?”

Huntress raises her crossbow in a blaise manner, shooting a bolt through the air which lands in Dee’s shoulder, pinning her to the wall and causing her to drop the knife she’d had in her hands. “DEEE!” Dick screams out, reaching for the woman as he tries to get out from under the table.

He’s stopped as four more armed men enter the room, two of which move over towards Delia to secure her, roughly pulling the wounded and now bleeding woman from her pinned position at the wall.    
  
Huntress just notches another crossbow bolt and brings it down to the man’s head, threatening him in such a way that he doesn’t even breath. The two study each other for a moment until something finally occurs to the woman. “No...I need this to be done right”.

She pulls the tip of the bolt away, causing the young man to heave a sigh of relief. Huntress turns to her hired hands and begins to issue orders. “Get her in the van. Treat her wound. I don’t want her bleeding out. Not just yet”.

“As for this one…”.

She removes her foot off of the door and hops off, allowing the man to move while making him believe that they were just going to take him hostage, lead him out, conscious from the building under his own power to be loaded into the van.

He pushes the door off of him and breathes deeply, enjoying being able to do so again. ‘Being deprived for a few seconds is like a lifetime’ he thinks to himself, Huntress allowing him the courtesy of being able to breath unobstructed for a moment. “I’ll bring him down”.

She abruptly brings up her armored shoe and smashes it down upon his face, cracking and smashing in his nose and knocking out some of his teeth. “DICCCK!” Dee screams out, being dragged into the hallway and passing her husband just at that moment. Her wound had completely debilitated her and she couldn’t fight. Not just then. 

“Didn’t say I’d bring his smile intact” Huntress says while reaching down to pick up the prone man, glad to have knocked him out. She didn’t think that she’d get through the drive it would require to get them into place without killing the man if he was allowed to remain awake. 

What would he do?   
  


Plead for his life? Beg her to let him go? Did he do that for any of his and Joker’s countless victims over the years? No.

She couldn’t stomach it. Not anymore.

She moves down the stairs with the body over her back, unable to fight the trepidation she felt at what she was about to do. It was like there was a voice in the back of her head screaming that she should stop. Turn back.

It sounded like her father, and that was the most disquieting part. That day where she’d faced Deacon Blackfire and her mother...she’d heard her father speak to her. She was sure it was real, and she was sure that he was still there watching. 

Maybe he was still speaking to her, and the voice she heard was indeed her father’s voice. In the end though, it wouldn’t be enough to stop her from doing what she had to do. ‘I have to fix this dad’ she says, knowing that if he was still there he’d understand. ‘I have to fix all of this. Don’t worry...Ras isn’t going to take over. Not like he thinks he is’.

Deadman, Jim Gordon, was indeed there, and he was desperately trying to figure out a way to stop what was going on. To save his little girl from himself. He was the one who’d slid into into Dee Grayson’s body right before the crossbow bolt hit her shoulder, trying to prevent her from killing his daughter.

Luckily for her, but unfortunately for him, the pain that was meant for the green haired, white skinned girl was taken by him, at least the brunt of it freshly delivered. The shock to the physical body however knocked him out of her, and kept him out of it for a few seconds.

  
When the pain finally dulled and he came too, he saw that Barbara had knocked out Jester and was now moving down the stairs with him. “Dammit Barbara!” he screams uselessly. “Don’t do this!”

She didn’t hear him, though at this point?   
  


He doubted it would have made a difference.

**_Gotham City_ **

“Batman. We need to split up” Harleen says from the passenger seat of the batmobile.

“No” he says back firmly, knowing that his stern refusal wouldn’t be enough for his wife whereas it seemed to be enough for everyone else. “Bruce….we need to split up”.

“Why?”

“Because she’s unstable” Harleen says. “I can tell from the inflection of her voice. She’s holding her anger back and if she’s asking for us to split up, we have to play along”.

“You always said never to humor the delusions of the criminally insane” he bites back, worried about what “splitting” up would mean at this critical juncture. It would mean each of them, isolated from one another and thus unable to render assistance should they need it.

“Yes but when they have their finger on the trigger of multiple bombs…”.

“We don’t know that they’re real”.

“And we don’t know that they’re not Bruce!” she shouts out in exasperation as the batmobile moves along the now deserted city streets. She changes tactics, quickly becoming softer as she reaches across for her husband’s hand. “Sweetie...this is our daughter. I can reach her. I know it”.

He looks over at Harleen, each studying one another through their cowls. Slowly he presses his foot to the break, halting the vehicle in the middle of the street. “She’s going to be somewhere at the docks” he says causing Harleen to nod as the canopy slides back and she hops out of the car.

“I know”.

She moves to the side of the dark vehicle and presses her hand against a panel, causing a compartment, hidden underneath the plate armor of their car to extend out. Soon, the compartment opens, revealing Harley’s bike that she used as leader of the now...or at least previously defunct birds of prey. 

She jumps up onto the seat and starts the engine, revving it while then moving up to the side of the car, speaking to Batman again. “Katana, Canary and Ivy are scanning the city for the bombs. She said the Society or Titans couldn’t move. Not anything about the Birds”.

“Are you sure that she wont see them and set off the bombs herself?”

“The bombs are just a distraction to her Batman” she explains. “For all we know? You might be right and they’re fake. But we can’t risk it. As for why she wont detonate them? It keeps three heroes off the board. She did say this was a family matter after all”.

She revs the bike, signalling that it was time for her to go. “Get to the Asylum. Undoubtedly Azrael is on his way there….and if not? He’ll meet me at the docks”.

“He’ll be at the docks” Batman says, knowing his son well enough. That was practically the only reason that he was letting her go. She would have Jason’s support.

He trusted his son.

The two continue to look at one another, a lingering question overtaking their minds. “Bruce…” she says, dropping all pretense of alter egos and disguises as nobody else was around to see them. “When we stop her...she isn’t going to prison”.

“Harleen...we might not have a choice”.

“She isn’t” she says firmly, refusing to give ground on this. “She needs help. We did this and we’re going to fix it. Understand? And we’re going to bring down the people who helped turn our little girl into this. We haven’t lost Barbara Bruce. We wont”.

He nods, not having the spirit to fight this battle at the moment. “We’ll do what we have to. She’ll be safe”. That’s the only thing that mattered to him, though he was worried about what awaited him at the Asylum.

“Alright. Let’s do this!”

With that, Harleen rockets off into the night, quickly followed by Batman and the batmobile though they soon take two divergent routes. One up to the asylum and the other down to the docks. 

  
He watches her for a moment as she takes the off ramp, worried about how quickly events were spiralling out of control. ‘She can’t be doing this alone’ he concludes, knowing that this was most likely being aided by forces he couldn’t see at that moment.

‘But who?’

He didn’t have an answer, though he hoped that he might find it at the Asylum. 

Harleen could handle herself. 

He knew it.

He’d just have to trust his wife to talk their daughter down, though with Jason there? Anything could happen.

**_The Justice Society of America_ **

Katar, or Carter as he had made his name on Earth, clicks on the communications array, trying to push out the sound of his wife Tora pacing worriedly behind him. “Come on...come on…”.

The line suddenly engages, both parties whom he had sent the call out to responding quickly enough. “Batman, Luthor…” he says in solemn greeting. “Hawkman, what’s going on?” Luthor asks tiredly, crayon on his face. 

Tora notices this first on the screen and moves forward to ask about it. “Lex...is that...crayon?”

The bald man sighs and rolls his eyes, wiping his cheek and completely missing the spot where the green smear was anyways. “Yeah…” he says evenly. “There’s been a...developement that I’ll make everyone aware of soon. I’ll even introduce her”.

“We don’t have time” Batman says severely. “Hawkman, is everyone at headquarters?” he asks, glad that there was an equally no nonsense hero on staff there at the moment. “No Batman” he says. “Giganta, Plastic Man, Vixen and Constantine are all away on vacation. It’s just Tora and I at the moment”.

  
“They’re not scheduled to return anytime soon are they?”

“No Not until next week” Hawkman says. “Deadshot, Cheetah and Killer Frost are still out on the west coast as well. None are scheduled to make an appearance at the Justice Society anytime soon. Did you want me to call them in?”.

“No. In fact, issue a quarantine alert on the city. Code Igloo Foxtrot”.

Lex suddenly realizes how severe this was as the Society code for Invading Force is invoked. “What’s going on?”

“There’s been a credible threat to the city” Batman says vaguely, before realizing that now was not the time to be vague. “It’s….someone I know. Someone I thought we lost….”.

“Batman….who is it?”

Bruce goes silent at that, but he knows eventually he’d have to answer. “I can’t say right now...but Batwoman is on her way to try and talk Huntress down. That’s who she goes by now”.

“What can we do?” Hawkman says, getting to the point and wanting to get his orders, the perfect soldier as always.

“Nothing. Right now I need the Justice Society to stand down and stay down. Ensure that the Titans follow suit though I’m sure they already know”.

“I’ll make sure” Carter says. “But what about you?”

“Huntress had Batwoman and I split up” he says. “She’s planted bombs all over the city. Plans to blow them if we don’t do what she says. We’re planning on following her lead until we know fully what to do”.

“Alright Batman but the moment you have something for us to do...let us know” Carter says, an affirming nod from his wife behind him showcasing her commitment to the same course of action.

“I promise. Batman out”.

Without that, the link to the batmobile is severed and Luthor is left to discuss this odd situation with the two on duty Society members. However, Tora steps up, apparently being unable to let something go, despite the dire straits they now found themselves in.

“Lex...why is there fargestift on your face?”

“Uhh….”.

“Mr. Luthor! Can I have a soda?!” a little girl’s voice shouts in the background. Lex turns for a second, apparently addressing the off screen girl. “You have to ask Mercy sweetie” he says, apparently hoping to defer such an important issue to his wife.

“But I can’t find her” the girl whines. “Pleassssse?”

The bald man caves, shaking his head as his friends and colleagues look on in either mirth or shock. “Okay Clara...you can have a soda. But only one! And not the orange...ahh, she’s off already, and probably to get an orange one” he mumbles to himself, adding, “I know she has super hearing but she’ll still pretend she didn’t hear me”.

  
“Lex...who is that?” Carter asks while Tora tries to contain her laughter.

“Well…..would you believe that a rocket ship essentially brought Mercy and I a daughter?” he asks sheepishly.

**_Arkham Asylum_ **

The police line was enough to show the vigilante that something awful had happened here, and he puts the car in park before jumping out, his boots crunching down upon the gravel. Montoya was already on scene, though strangely enough she was wearing a dress of all things. 

It was enough to take Batman aback, having never seen the woman wear anything other than jeans and a jacket over her shirt. Now? She was wearing a dress, with perfectly made hair. “Ohh!” she calls out, waving as her eyes finally settle on Batman. She moves up, able to maneuver almost flawlessly on heels.

“Batman it’s so good to see you! We have a problem. A big one!”

He could see that, though he wasn’t sure that they were talking about the same issue. “Renee...are you...alright?”

“Yes, yes...ohh, why, is it the dress? Don’t you like it?” she asks, seeming a bit hurt which causes Bruce to retract his statement. Whatever this was, it had to wait. The city was in danger, and so was Barbara and the rest of his family.

“It’s...fine…” he says evenly, watching over the woman’s shoulder as Bullock moves up to assist with the situation within the situation. “Hey Bats...the commish here…”.

“Is perfect” she intervenes. “So everyone stop fussing over me because I changed my wardrobe”. She turns back to Batman and gestures for the man to follow her, the trio now moving past the police line and into the Asylum itself. “We have a real nasty situation inside. This Huntress person...she’s got problems. Serious ones. Ohh she made this place such a mess!” Renee seethes, unable to handle looking at the knocked over plant vases and all around disheveled appearance of the asylum.

“Detective Bullock!”

“Uhh...yeah commish?” the fat detective says in a restrained tone.

“When we’re done here, I want this place cleaned, top to bottom. You hear? I want nothing out of order when the crime scene is wrapped up, along with its attendant investigation as soon as possible! You understand?”

“Uhh...yes Renee”.

“Commissioner Montoya, Detective Bullock” the woman corrects with an arched eyebrow. “Decorum in the field”.

“Right, uhh, sorry Re..Commissioner Montoya”.

The woman smiles widely, nodding in appreciation. “Perfect. Let’s go to the main source of all the issues so Batman can sort them out”. The woman moves along the hallways, practically skipping in excitement, as if this wasn’t a grisly crime scene.

“I...I don’t know what’s happened to her bats” Bullock admits. “Pyg”.

The two men nod, knowing that for the moment there wasn’t much to be done. Montoya didn’t seem to be showing signs of planning on hurting anyone either, so they found themselves calmed by that fact. 

“It’s bad bats. I gotta warn you”.

Just then, a group of inmates, patients more likely, are being escorted out of the building and through the halls, many of them closing their eyes to avoid looking upon the corpses of the guards which were laid out under sheets.

Bruce sees Harvey and he nods, hoping that the man was alright as well. He seemed okay, not injured physically and Harvey assures him that he’s okay mentally by smiling back. He stops though, trying to address his friend under the cowl.

“Batman...whoever this is….”.

“I know Mr. Dent...I know”.

Harvey moves on, glad that he could at least trust his extended family to stop whatever was happening. He knew that Gotham was going to win again.

Bruce moves on besides Bullock, following to where Renee had obviously gone. They enter into the spacious recreation room, which had been horribly changed from before. The tables and chairs were all thrown to one side, smashed up and destroyed.

‘That’ll cost a bit to replace’ Bruce says, his mind going over how thoroughly the place seemed to be wrecked. Methodically, like there was a purpose.

‘She’s doing it to throw me off’ he thinks, remembering the crime scene investigation training he’d given to both Barbara and Jason. ‘She wants to make it seem methodical, to hide any available evidence. Stalling me’.

‘It wont work’ he vows resolutely, moving to where Renee was standing, shaking her head in shock and sorrow. “Ohh...look at this mess…”.

Bruce himself was shocked at what he saw before him, and apparently so were the police officers scattered about, each taking pictures of the crime scene or cataloguing physical evidence. It was clear that they were averting their eyes as much as possible from the macabre centerpiece in the middle of the room.

The bodies of the much more violent, criminally motivated patients were laid out in a shape on the floor, pinned down with long metal nails that were hammered in through their wrists. Professor Pyg, the Scarecrow, Zsazs as well as many of his other rogues that they’d fought over the years.

He recognizes the Park Row Rapist, a paranoid schizophrenic who believed that he was trying to create the anti-Christ by impregnating random women. There were many of those, much more than the normal average, everyday insanity of the others that were certainly not average or every day.

Harleen called them one trick wonders, those whose spree was stopped once and for all. Very different from the likes of the Joker who broke out, time and time again.

They were arrayed in a shape, one that could readily be made out to be a basica rendition of the bat symbol, the center filled with blood which had obviously pooled out from the bodies. Someone had taken the time to write something in the blood, wiping it away to reveal the stained tile beneath.

“I am Batman!”

“What the hell does this mean bats?” Bullock asks, raising his collar to block out the scent of coopery death.

Bruce doesn’t answer, and instead slowly moves to his knees, inspecting the nearest corpse which so happened to be Jonathan Crane. His wrists were slit, and he was disemboweled with a sloppy cut of a blade. However, the sloppiness in and of itself betrayed a sense of professionalism. It was meant to be sloppy. Meant to cause pain.

“She’s saying that she’s better at protecting Gotham that we are” he admits, knowing that this had possibly always been Barbara’s underlying philosophy when it came to crime. 

“By what? Slicing them up kebab? This ain’t right bats”.

Suddenly, something reaches out and grabs Batman’s leg, shocking everyone in the room, Harvey even drawing his pistol and aiming it at the still alive Scarecrow, who was trying to speak. They couldn’t tell what was wrong as he was wearing his signature mask, no doubt fished out of the evidence lockers kept beneath Arkham, just in case the items proved useful in therapy.

Bruce calms his rapidly beating heart and moves down once more, slowly pulling off the Scarecrows mask to reveal his scarred face. Huntress had done a number on him. His mouth was sliced open, and his tongue was hanging on by threads while his teeth were fully knocked out. His hand was still injured, having pulled itself off of the nail to reach out and grasp Batman’s leg.    
  
His throat was slit as well, and Bruce didn’t need the medical training he had to know that it was fatal. Despite the horrific crimes of Jonathan Crane, he holds his hand as he dies, knowing that nobody deserved to die alone.

‘Nobody deserves this’.

“What the fuck was that?” Bullock asks, continuing on. “His body was turned into fucking chopmeat? How do you live through that?”

The dark vigilante doesn’t have a chance to answer as Montoya rushes forward, and doesn’t seem at all bothered by what had just happened.. “Whoever did this is going to be buried UNDER the jail!” she screeches. “I swear! Ohhh...this has me so angry. I have to keep my calm though. I’m the commissioner” she says, taking a deep breath and moving her hands down her dress to smooth it out. “Alright...we need to secure the perimeter of the scene and…”.

An officer rushes in, practically sliding across the floor as he tries to get their attention. “So...so...something outside!” he shouts out with a nervous stutter, frightening everyone inside of the asylum. Batman is the first to react, rushing through the halls to make his way outside, knowing that it wouldn’t be good, whatever it was.

Bullock looks at Montoya before rushing off as well, leaving the woman to huff. “Not so perfect gentlemen!” she says, reaching under the skirt part of her dress to draw her service pistol out of the holster she had wrapped around her thigh. “Not so perfect at all!”

She turns her head over her shoulder and smiles at the others, still frightened by Scarecrow’s abrupt movement and subsequent death, and urges them on. “Well come on boys. You’re not going to go let me fight whatever is out there all alone are you?”

With that she moves off, the other men shamed into moving along, though all finding themselves unsettled by the Commissioner. 

Undoubtedly they were going to all be having a meeting about this when the flames simmered down.

Bruce steps out into the night again, hearing the sounds of gunfire and the clashing of steel. He wasn’t prepared for what he saw. What looked like ninjas, clad in black and wielding swords, were descending upon the police officers, striking them down while a few others managed to get shots off.

A shadow lunges at him from the side, and he narrowly avoids the thrust of the blade before grasping it flat between his palms and roughly twisting it out of his attackers hands. He then turns it and swings the pommel directly into his face, just in time for Bullock, Montoya and the other cops to exit out of the asylum.

“All right! Police! You’re breaking the law and are under arrest!” Montoya shouts out childishly, prompting one of the black clad ninjas to turn on her. She uses her service pistol and doesn’t hesitate in blasting a hole right in his head. “Ha! That’s what you get for not listening to the commissioner! Naughty! Not perfect!”

She was cracking, more and more, under the pressure of what was happening. “Bullock! Get her and the others away from here!” Bruce shouts, knowing that he could handle this as he topples yet another ninja, delivering one hell of a haymaker directly into his face. 

“We’re not interested in them anyways”.

The feminine voice attracts Bruce’s attention, and he turns to see a woman with a mandarin collar style dress walking forward, her hips swaying out to each side while carrying a knife. “We’re here for you”.

The ninjas stop fighting and crowd behind the woman, obviously being their leader, as she stares down the vigilante. “Who are you?”

“You may call me Shiva”.

“The destroyer of worlds”.

She shrugs with a dainty smile that was at odds with the malice she radiated outwards. “Batman I can fight her!” Montoya shouts out. “You can’t fight a girl anyway! It wouldn’t be right! We have to follow the...mmphhh”.

Bullock silences the woman with a hand around her mouth and begins to pull her and the other wounded officers back, knowing that they couldn’t take whoever this was on. She resists, kicking outwards, but otherwise has no choice but to let the larger and much stronger detective manhandle her.

Bruce for one, was very happy to have her out of danger, and he turns his attention back to Shiva. “Who are you working for?”

“Ahh, astute” she teases. “The League of Assassins, under the leadership of the great Ras Al Ghul”.

“The League is nothing but a myth” he retorts, though it has no effect on Shiva whatsoever. In fact, she simply shrugs it off. “Well, we’re right here and I can assure you that this is no myth”. Bruce was similarly unmoved, knowing that this was the trap that Barbara had sprung on them from the beginning.

He had heard of the League of Assassins, and as such knew a bit about their legend. If Barbara had fallen into their hands somehow...it might already be too late to save her.

“You’re working for Huntress?”

“With Huntress” Shiva says. “She has much to learn before taking her place as our mistress but…” she says with a smile. “I firmly believe that it will happen” she explains.

“And you’re here to distract me, stop me or kill me?”

“Preferably all three” Shiva teases. “I don’t think she has what it takes to kill you in all honesty. I mean...losing her father to this city twice? That would be harsh. Me killing you would be doing her a favor, so how about you just let me slit your throat?”

All she gets back is silence, and Bruce forms himself into a fighting position, making clear his intention to fight it out to the end. “I’m going to save her”.

“She doesn’t need saving”.

Shiva had begun to pace around the man, keeping her lackeys back with a wave of her hand. “She needs guidance. Strength. We found her at her lowest point and we made her into a goddess of war”.

“You manipulated her and used her, twisted her into what she is now” he snarls back in a rage.

“It’s all about perspective” Shiva chides. “After all, you know as well as I do that this was inside of Barbara right from the start. This is all she is Batman. What she really wanted. Surely even her father can see that”.

Bruce has nothing more to say, wanting to break right on through these people and rush to his daughter, hopefully being able to save her from herself.

“Shut up and fight”.

**_Gotham Docks_ **

Jason lands on the ground, having tucked and rolled to avoid injuring himself to the best of his abilities. Instantly, he’s on his feet, cutting an intimidating figure as he stands there in the Suit of Sorrows.

It was raining, as was typical. Indeed it felt fated that a night like this would have rain. It was there to reflect his mood.

The roar of a motorbike distracts him and he turns to see the batcycle rush into the nearly abandoned docks, the pier itself having fallen into disrepair and being slowed phased out by the construction of a much more modern facility further down the coast.

Harleen stops the bike a few feet away from her son and steps off, fixing him with a stare. “I thought you could use some backup”.

“Batwoman...I have this”.

“Yeah. We do”.

Harleen moves forward and looks out over the dock, her mind going back to the many memories they’d made there as a family oddly enough. She can’t help the sad smile that creeps over her face at the facts.

“I somehow knew you’d come here. She thought you’d got to the asylum”.

“I didn’t”.

“No. You didn’t” Harleen says, looking over at the alleyway where they’d parked the batmobile all those years ago, and where they’d found Jason and Barbara. “I knew...right then that you were my babies” she says, drifting back to that time. “Not consciously but part of me, I guess my soul, just knew that your father and I were supposed to take care of you two. Neither of you grew in my belly for nine months Jason. Hell, you didn’t even come to me until you were older but...you grew in my heart for so long”.

He didn’t know what to say to his mother, though her words eat away at him, causing him guilt for pushing them away all these years. 

“Hello”.

The voice was unsteady, nervous sounding, and the two vigilantes see that Huntress was now standing at the end of the alley, looking back at them. Harleen steps forward first but stops as Barbara raises her crossbow.

“Barb...sweetie…”.

“Don’t call me that” the woman hisses, still wearing the mask that obscures all her features. She turns to focus on Jason. “You were supposed to go to the asylum. Why didn’t you listen?”. Jason now steps forward, wanting to answer her question. “Because you needed me”.

“You don’t get it Jason” she says. “It’s you that needs me. It’s my turn to protect you”.

“From what Babs...it’s only you that’s threatening anyone”.

The accusation seems to anger the woman, and she points out at Harleen though she envelopes Bruce in her accusation too. “From them!”.

“Barbara...you’re sick” Harleen says, her heart slowly breaking. “You need help. Let me help you”. The girl only laughs darkly in response. “Help me? You can’t help anyone!” she seethes. “What do you do huh? You put the same old bad guys behind the same old bars and do what? Wait for them to break out and do the same thing all over again? How many are dead because of you?”

“That isn’t what this is about” Harleen says, slightly angered now. “You’re the one hurting people now”.

“Because they’re weak. They keep relying on their heroes to save them without confronting any of the issues that are actually the problem” she says. “You’re no better Wayne. You talk to these scumbags, coddle them, and then put them in a padded cell before eventually someone lets them out to do it all over again”.

“And what are you doing Barbara?” Jason asks angrily. “Who made you God? What makes you able to decide these things?”

She softens with Jason, her love for him still being quite strong. If anyone could reach her, it would be him. “There is no God Jason. God didn’t care when he saw Henry Blascowitz butcher those three schoolgirls in the Narrows. God didn’t care when Firefly burnt up Uncle Harvey. If he’s around and he saw all that? He didn’t mind” she says. “The way I see it? We make the world this way, and it’s time someone cleans it up”.

“By becoming a killer” Harleen accuses, struggling between wanting to rush to her daughter and hug her, or knock her teeth out. It was definitely the former she’d readily admit.

“YOU THINK YOU CAN SAVE THIS CITY BY MAKING THE BAD GUYS AFRAID!” she shouts back, practically shaking and throwing off the aim on her crossbow. Anyone else and either one of the two vigilantes would’ve rushed forward and knocked the girl out.

This wasn’t anyone else.

“But what about the ones who aren’t afraid? I’m doing what you wont, and I’m gonna take them out! For good!”

“Barbara...it’s not too late” Jason urges. “Let us save you. Please”.

She softens her stance and tilts her head while looking at Jason. “I’m sorry Jason. This is going to hurt but after it’s done...you’ll see. Tiger, don’t kill him”. 

At her words, a hulking man jumps out of the shadows, shocking the two that they hadn’t seen him there before as he lunges at the young man, capturing his arm and throwing him back against a crate, smashing the wood. 

“Azrael!” Batwoman shouts, making to help her son until Huntress throws her off, punching her straight in the jaw and starting their own fight. Jason moves out of the destroyed box slowly, brushing off some of the splinters and narrowly avoiding another devastating blow from Bronze Tiger.

He thinks about drawing his sword but opts against it, knowing the temptation to use it lethally grew every time he drew it from the scabbard. No. He’d fight this man, whoever he was, man to man. He draws back his fist and punches him.

Hard.

But for all the good it did he might as well have been a flea, though the man’s jaw was certainly fractured. No, he just kept coming, unaware of the brutal punishment that he was suffering as a result of Jason’s fists.

Bronze Tiger roars and charges forward, grasping Jason about the mid section, picking him up and slamming him into the ground, remembering Huntress’ orders not to kill him. Jason’s lungs were forcibly emptied of all air, and the man moves atop him, grasping his throat and squeezing the chainmail around it, hoping to suffocate the man just enough to knock him out. 

Jason struggles beneath him, while Harleen and Barbara were engaged in a fight, seemingly to the death. Harleen makes to kick out at Barbara’s midsection, but is halfhearted, not wanting to hurt her daughter.

Barbara had no such reservations.    
  
Grasping her mother’s leg, she halts her and delivers a flurry of chops to the woman’s head, dizzying her as the cowl slams up against her skull. She falls forward as soon as Barbara lets her go, swinging around to her rear and catching her in a chokehold that allows her to whisper into her ear.

“What bothers you more? The fact that your greatest failure has returned from the grave, or that I’ve became a better Batwoman than you?”

Harleen was seething now, knowing that she couldn’t lose this battle for her life and Barbara’s soul. She slams her head back, impacting against Barbara’s face mask and forcing the younger woman to let her go for a moment.    
  
She follows it out by drawing a batarang out and slicing over the mask the girl wore, catching her skin on her cheek a bit too.

The redhead gasps and moves back, bringing her hand up to check on the wound, seeing that blood was on her hands now. She turns back to Harleen, letting her get the first glance she’d had in a long time at her daughter’s face, or at least half of it, the other part of the mask still being attached.

She’d grown into a beautiful woman, though her looks were marred by the hatred in her eyes.

Harleen was resolute though. She’d beat her into the cement like any other street thug, preventing her from harming anyone else. But after that? She’d pick up her little Robin, return to the cave and not leave until she was healthy and stable.

The madness she saw in her eyes convinced her that this would be a tough fight all around.

“Mama didn’t show you everything Robin”.

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!”

Huntress lunges back at Harleen, reigniting the fight and resuming contact as the two both draw their fists back to deliver a blow to the other.

It was mother versus daughter, a fight for a soul of Gotham.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full Disclosure: I did NOT intend to write the beach scene between Giganta/Plas/Vixen/John to be so long. However, it works out for this chapter because the next one is going to be intense so I hope this serves as a nice little fluff/funny bit to help soften the harshness. 
> 
> Also thanks to my dedicated reviewers. You guys urge me on to write. Been losing alot of reviews since When Harley Met Bruce and I wont lie that bums me out. Makes me think I am starting to suck :P but we're halfway done so new story after that!

**_Eagle Beach, Aruba_ **

The sun was intensely beating down on the beach, having risen up over the horizon to start a new day.    
  
A new day that John Constantine was not ready to face.

His quints his eyes as he slowly opens them, not wanting to instantly be exposed to the rays of light he knew would be devastating right now. He gradually does it though, knowing that he had too and suddenly being quite thankful for all those nights he’d really put one on. It prepared him for situations like this though.

He was laying on a towel in the sand, in and of itself not surprising. He also knew that he was naked. Again, not surprising. A weight turns in his arms, a figure nuzzling into him, covered by yet another towel that kept the sun at bay.    
  


John smiles wide at that. 

‘Looks like we did get to do it on the beach. Mari you naughty girl’.

Slowly he leans over, nuzzling the position under the towel where he was sure his wife’s head would be, trying to rouse her. “Come on love. Time to get up”. The woman groans, never being a morning person irregardless of if she’d gotten drunk or not, in itself a rarity as Mari believed alcohol wasn’t good for her hair and skin. John vehemently disagreed with her, though only as a point of order. He knew the devil’s brew was unhealthy but he couldn’t help himself.

The woman continues to try and sleep, burying herself deeply in his side while also exposing a bit of her head. He smiles for a moment until he remembers that Mari didn’t have red hair. Seeing the woman turn her head a bit, he realizes that he was cuddled up with Giganta.

“HOLY SHITE!” he screams before jumping to the side, trying as quickly as he could to get away from the woman who herself was startled awake, wide eyed and fearful. “WHERE?! OWWWW” she moans as the sun finally hits her eyes, causing her to cry out in pain and cover them up. 

“Giganta...what the fuck are you...did we…?” John asks worriedly, on the verge of panic. ‘Ohh shite no...you fucked up again you arse! Mari will never forgive you’ he thinks, knowing that while he’d been less to faithful to other women in his past, he’d never cheated and never would cheat on his wife!

Or at least he thought he wouldn’t have.

“John?” Giganta asks curiously before the same thought that had already come to John dawns on her. She pulls the towel closer, realizing that she too was naked, and wants to cover her nudity. “Ohh no...did we…?”

“I….I don’t soddin’ remember” he says, sitting back in the sand and looking around for anything to cover himself up. Soon enough he finds his trunks in the sand, and he reaches out to grab them, turning and having no choice but to leave his rear end in sight of the woman he’d apparently spent the night with.    
  
She looks away though, blushing as her eyes settle on another lump in the sand, a few feet from them. Plastic man was laying there, Mari in his arms as both continued to snooze, his sunglasses blocking out the sun.

Her first thought was rather juvenile, wondering if he’d worn them all night and her mind going to the song by Corey Hart. Her next thought was that her husband and Mari…..

She was enraged now, and she stands, still covered by the towel, and moves over to the two, kicking Plastic Man in the side and waking him up. “YOU UTTER BASTARD!” she screams, waking the man up with her shout if the kick didn’t do it.

The very flexible man goes flying, landing a few feet down the beach in a lump, moaning out in pain. “Owww….wha...wha…”.

Mari was awake now, looking around and clutching the towel over her chest as she tries to do quick math in her dazed and confused state. She looks at the empty spot on the towel laid out on the beach, seeing that it had indeed been slept in. But it wasn’t the towel she and John had brought, that towel being over by the fuming exorcist who was glaring at his friend with an intent to kill. 

“Ohh no...I...I slept with….Plastic Man?” Mari asks, her eyes wide in fear, revulsion, embarrassment and most of all shock. She looks back over at her fuming husband though, who was now advancing across to the slowly rising stretchy hero. He grabs him by the shoulder, shaking him even more out of his post drinking haze while drawing his fist back.

“You slept with my wife!” he accuses loudly before Eel shakes his head vigorously to the negative. “No John! I swear I….well I don’t remember but….hey…” he stops, looking back over at Giganta who was wearing one of the Constantines’ towels while crying. 

He looks at their abandoned blanket as well, putting two and two together.

Suddenly his fist is raised, his legs having wrapped around Constantine to pin him there. “YOU FUCKED GIGANTA!!!!” he accuses right back, the two men ready to come to blows at the same time as the women square off.

“YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND MARI!? HOW COULD YOU??!”

“ME?” Vixen asks back in confusion, her fingers sporting her tell tale claws now. “HOW COULD YOU HAVE FUCKED JOHN?”

The arguments escalate, neither physically fighting quite yet as they turn on their respective spouses as well. “WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU EEL? SHE’S A MODEL! IS THAT IT? YOU WANTED SOME FLOOZY FROM A JERKOFF CALENDAR?”   
  


“AND WHAT? I’M JUST SUPPOSED TO FORGET THAT YOU SCREWED THE DRUNKEN WONDER?” Plas shoots back.

“YOU’RE DEAD JOHN!” Vixen shouts, undoubtedly the most territorial of the four. “I’LL SKIN YOU AND WEAR YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID!” 

Tears were streaming down her face in her rage and feelings of utter betrayal, and John feels guilt at their very presence. That guilt is wiped away as soon as he remembers that…

“YOU HAD SEX WITH PLASTIC MAN!!!” he shouts while childishly pointing a finger at her. “Don’t remind me!” she says, making a retching noise and holding her stomach. “I’ll never have enough showers to be clean again!”.

This naturally starts a whole new line of argumentation which wakes up a man with a camera who’d been sitting a bit back on the beach, apparently having been filming the heroes, hoping for a bit of cash. The argument though...it had woken him up, and honestly? This wasn’t worth the hassle.

‘An entire night wasted’ he thinks, having hoped to get a pornographic video of the well known Justice League couples. Indeed the idea of them participating in “swinging” had indeed been too tasty to ignore. Too scandalous.

But he’d caught nothing of the sort, though perhaps the footage would serve some use. ‘Dammit Diego, a romantic at heart’ he thinks, standing up draw their attention. “Buenos dias” he shouts out, moving down the beach with the camera in his hand. ‘Ahh si...still some battery life’ he says.

“WHAT?!” they all shout in unison, naturally not knowing what to make of this strange man who was holding a camera. “I want to make this brief as I wish to return to my hotel room and shower but...I captured the night’s footage on camera if you wish to see” he explains. 

“Why would any of us want to see that mate?” John asks, not even wanting to know what he’d done with the size changing woman. “None of you made love last night” Diego says quickly, calming them down and turning their anger to confusion.

“What?” Mari asks.

“Si. Your wedding vows, each of you, are quite intact. I was hoping to film it not being so but….more pleasant conversation. You were at the couple’s night si?”

“Wait...you were followin’ and filming us mate?” John asks. “Give me one reason I shouldn’t knock you out right now for being a creep”.

Diego gulps, seeing the ire of the four heroes now directed solely at him. “Well...I saw you there. I was with my wife myself. I saw an opportunity to make money” he explains simply. “Maria wasn’t feeling well, so she went back to the room. I later found out that it was because the waiter had slipped a hallucinogenic drug into all of your food”.

“What?” Giganta asks, her mind instantly going to all sorts of nefarious plots that could’ve been carried out while they were under the influence of the narcotics. “Yes, apparently it is too..lighten the mood for later activities that do include...well, what you believed you had done regardless” he teases.

“You were saved by this one though” he says while pointing to Giganta. “She wished to come to the beach and collect sea shells. She said she wanted to collect as many as possible and even enlisted you..” he says pointing to John, “to use magic and summon them”.

He then points to something down the beach, which was indeed a massive pile of sea shells that looked as if a dump truck had set them there. “Then” Diego continues. “This one climbed up a tree” he says to Mari. “And hissed like a cat until her husband came up to get her. She said, and these are her words not mine, that she was...his kitty alone and that he’d have to get her”.

Mari blushes a deep crimson. “John as I’ve learned your names at this point, then crawled up the tree and fell out with her in his arms. After that, Giganta began to bounce Eel I believe his name is, down the beach in the form of a ball. The rest...well...would you rather watch the video?” he teases, being emotionally invested in the plight of these people at this point. 

Giganta had softened at hearing these undoubtedly strange stories and moves back to Eel, realizing that none of them were in the right state of mind. “Eel...I’m sorry I kicked you. I shouldn’t have done that” she says. The man forgets the anger he held at his wife and hugs her tight, wrapping his arms around her multiple times for emphasis. “Sweetie...whatever happened last night...I want you to know that I love you and never would’ve done anything wrong in my right mind…”.

“I know Eel. I love you too! You’re the only man for me, you know that right? You’re the father of my children!”

Mari looks up at John and smiles, reaching her hand out for his as he returns the gesture. “Alright...we can work through this. It’s okay. We both screwed up. I’m still Mrs. Constantine” she says. John melds his lips to hers and rubs her side through the towel. “Damn right you are love”.

“As I said” Diego interrupts. “Nothing...untoward happened last night”.

The couples look at each other, quickly coming to a consensus that is given voice by John. “Alright. Show us”.

Diego opens the camera, and all crowd around to see the image that was slowly coming to light on the small screen.

**_The Previous Night_ **

They were all sitting around each other on the blankets, at the moment with their respective husbands or wives. They were laughing uproariously, clearly inebriated or rather high off of the drug they’d inadvertently taken.

“Mari...Mari….sweetie” Gignata says, reaching across to take the black woman’s hand, the model giggling in response. “You’re my best friend in the world! I love you...but not like...in a kissy kiss way, like...like…”.

“Awww!” Mari moans out, leaving John’s waist to hug the woman, not letting her finish. “I love you too G! I’m...I’m sorry if I’m ever mean to you. I don’t mean to be I’m just...jealous”.

“What???” Giganta slurs out in shock.

“Yeah...I’m jealous. I’ll admit it” Mari says, flaying her hands out. “You’re a beautiful mama. They should take pictures of you!” Vixen pokes the woman in the shoulder, tearing up a bit. “Watching you with your babies...ahhh it’s too much”. John leans forward and rubs his wife’s shoulders gently, kissing her neck to soothe her. “I..unhh...lmmmm…”.

Apparently he wasn’t able to speak, at least not correctly, though Vixen pretends to understand him, patting his hand on her shoulder. “I love you so much baby. You have a way with words. You really do!”.

Plastic man meanwhile was moving his hands over the fabric of his swim trunks as if he was in awe of them. “Clothes are weird...like...they are. We started with furs and stuff...why are we wearing this stuff now?” he asks, continuing on his tangent.

“Well...you’d be a beautiful mother too Mari!” Giganta says happily, prompting the woman to shake her head no.

“Uhh uhh...uhh uhh…”.

“Aww why?” she asks back. “It wouldn’t mess up your figure! I promise. You’d still be beautiful” she soothes her friend, thinking it had something to do with her modeling career. “I don’t care about that...much” Mari admits. “I’d stop modeling if I had a baby. I wouldn’t want them seeing their mother posing sexily for some magazine..”.

“It isn’t porn Mari” Giganta says, looking towards Eel and taking his hand to squeeze it. He squeezes back but is focused on his pants still, not sure what to make of them. “Still...I’d be a bad mother”.

“Nonsense!”

“Uhh uhh”.

“Yeah huh”.

“Uhh uhh”.

“Yeah huh”.

  
The two go back and forth until Mari clamps her hand over Giganta’s mouth, silencing her. “MY mother...was awful to me. She only cared about her movie career. She wanted to make it to Hollywood one day but she..burr..” she stops to burp, having eaten quite a few hot wings after downing the strange drink given to her. “Sorry...she never left our village. She only appeared in some crappy film..backup actress”.

“Mari you’d be different! I know it!” Giganta says excitedly. “I’ll give you one of ours! We have six!”

Plas seems to be drawn out by that, smiling and nodding at first. His face falls though, and the fatal flaw in Giganta’s plan is revealed. “I...I think we’d get in trouble G”.

“Would we?”

“Yeah...issssss...illegal..legal? Is no good” Plas says, still slurring his words a bit.

“Weeee….talkkk…..mmmnnnrrrpph….lttrrrr” John moans out, reaching around Mari to rub her belly from behind. She turns her head and kisses his lips, moaning against him. “Mmmm my poet”.

“Clothes are weird”.

Giganta is annoyed by her husband’s fixation on clothes at the moment and turns to chastise him before realizing that he’s right. She had been nothing but a gorilla once, and they didn’t wear clothes. Slowly she reaches up and pushes the straps of her swimsuit down, shimmying out of them and shocking Mari. Plas just follows along though, stripping out of his swimsuit with his wife.

Mari goes wide eyed. “G!”

“What?” she asks. “Is natural…”. The drug was having more of an effect on her now, on all of them, and Mari found herself becoming woozy. “Sand...ocean is good for you skin too...your skin..hehe...tongue tied” Giganta says, setting back down on the blanket.

“It is?”

Giganta nods and looks off, not perturbed at all by her nudity, appearing careless and free all the same. Mari slowly looks at her husband, exposing her back to him and wordlessly asking him to undo her top. He wasn’t sure about this, but John follows through, undoing it while the model slips out of her bikini bottom and skirt. John quickly follows suit, now, all four, lying naked with each other.

Mari smiles slowly and cuddles into her husband, enjoying how natural this felt. “Mmm...John’s the best cuddler…” she murrs out.

“Pfft...nuh uh...Eel is”.

The plastic based hero was indeed molded around his wife in such a way as to cover her nudity and his own completely, though Mari was not going to back down from a fight, especially as John’s hands clamp down on her waist. 

“Is not” she laughs. “John is totally better at cuddling”.

  
“Ohh yeah?”

“Yeah” Mari retorts defiantly.

“Prove it”.

The black woman opens her mouth to try and find an argument, but nothing comes out because indeed she has no way to “prove it”. Giganta was facing the same issue apparently, though she rapidly comes up with an idea.

“I know! We swap cuddle partners”.

  
“Huh?”

“Well, they wanted us to swap partners at the party right?” she asks before Plas blushingly interjects. “Thasss not what they meant”.

“It can be what we mean..” she pouts out, not liking that her idea was being shot down.

“But we’re naked” Mari says scandalized.

“So?” Giganta asks. “Only way we’d know if itssssss….” she stops, dozing off for a second before waking up and continuing on like before. “Better or not. Skin and skin. No sex, just cuddles…”.

“I don’t know…”.

“You’re afraid John’ll lose!” Giganta taunts in a sing song voice before descending into giggles. That was enough to push Mari over the edge and she roughly stands up, and marches over to Giganta. “Move and I’ll cuddle your husband like he’s never been before….” she says, swaying on her feet. Giganta smirks and moves off, assured of her victory as she gets up and moves over towards John.

“It’ll be the other way around” she shouts back. “John ain’t ever been cuddled like I’m going to cuddle him” she says, plopping onto the blanket and grasping the shocked exorcist, pulling him in tight to her side. 

Mari does the same, placing her hands around Plas’ back and tucking her head under his chin, casting one look back at the other couple who seemed comfortable. ‘Pfft...as if he’ll be a better cuddler…’ she thinks childishly, pouting while Eel holds her back. Soon enough though, she realized that he was more than adequate, in fact he was downright warm.

‘Still not...better than John but...enough to make me sleepy…’ she thinks before indeed dozing off, not staying wake long enough to hear the same boisterous snores from Giganta and John.

The crashing of the waves was the only thing that breaks the silence….well, aside from the snores.

**_Today, Back on the Beach_ **

They were all in shock at the utterly perplexing situation that had just played out before their eyes, not knowing what to say. “So...no cheating happened right?” Giganta asks, looking fiercely at Diego before turning to Mari with a apologetic look. “No offense but...John really isn’t my type”.

“I’m not offended” the exorcist says while holding his wife’s waist, the woman leaning on his shoulder. “Yeah...no offense but Eel is a bit too stringy for me…” she says, drawing a relieved smile from Giganta who was afraid of losing her man...even if it was just to cuddles.

Plas smiles himself, an arm around the giantess’ shoulder’s before he frowns. “Well...I’m a little offended”. The shorter at the moment, and a bit chubbier woman smiles, kissing her husband’s cheek. “It’s like that story, Goldilocks and the three bears. Except it was two guys and you’re juuuust right for me” she teases, making the man blush.

She still had that effect, even after all these years.

“So...si. Nothing happened”.

“We’re going to need that footage mate” John says, holding his hand out. “Don’t want any leaks of our little cuddle swinging party out here on the sand”.

The man was about to hand it over before he stops, pulling it back with a sinister smile. “Si, yes...but how much is it worth to you? I wasted a pretty penny waiting for something, and I expect to walk away with with something”.

“It isn’t our fault you didn’t get a dirty movie you sick pervert!” Giganta yells, about to give into her urge to grow larger and stomp on the man. She’s stopped by Mari though, sighing at realizing they were going to have to buy their way out of this.

“How much?”

“Three thousand dollars”.

“We don’t have that kind of money!” Plas protests, knowing that they’d only been able to take this family vacation at all thanks to Batwoman’s generosity. “It’s alright…” Mari says with a roll of her eyes. “Three thousand is nothing to me. Let’s go to the hotel and get my checkbook”.

“Mari we can’t…” Giganta begins before being cut off.

“It’s okay. Consider it...a gift. For my best friend whose husband is an okay cuddler”. She winks at Plas before looking back at John. “But I prefer my drunken wonder as you called him. Now...let’s get dressed first. I’m hoping mister shutterbug here won’t be taking anymore pictures” she says with a warning glare.

Diego smiles and nervously nods. “No senora. Not at all. Hehe”.

“Good”.

**_Outside Gotham City_ **

The ship was moored at sea, anchored to the seabed as Ra’s waited, looking out over the city which was lit up as to draw all attention to it. The gentle rhythm of the ocean waves and the cawing of gulls was all that could be heard at moment though, the engines of the ship being cut off.

“Is it almost time?”

Bane lumbered up onto the observation deck to stand beside his partner who doesn’t move as of yet. “Not yet. I haven’t heard from Huntress”.

  
The hulking beast of a man lets out a grunt, exhaling some breath as he does so. “Do I take it you disagree with how I’m handling my own operation and plans?”

Bane steps right up to the man, getting close to his face and sneering under his luchador mask. “No. Esto no es yours alone Al Ghul” he corrects. “It is my hombres who are to do the heavy lifting. Me who is to lead them in battle. You...you are simply the financier”.

Ra’s coldly eyes the man back, containing the anger that bubbles within his gut at the audacity of the man to counter him in such an open way. “No. I am much more than that Senor” he says, his hand going to his sword hilt.

Bane smiles, looking on the action with amusement.

  
“Do you truly think you can kill me Ra’s?” the luchador asks while stepping away from the man, raising his hands in a faux supplication. “I’ve killed many like you, and all too easily” Ra’s says snidely. “There is not a man in the world who can best me”.

“Then why do we not fight it out then eh? Test that boast out?” Bane challenges. “Mano y mano. Fairly”.

Ra’s draws his sword which makes a harsh metallic sound as it escapes the blade, catching on the little bit of moonlight that had broken through the cloud cover at sea. “I haven’t lived this long by playing fair”.

The ancient warlord positions himself in such a manner as to charge Bane, making it abundantly clear to both that their alliance was at an end. Bane shrugs but slowly brings his hand up to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers and sighing loudly. “Neither do I senor”.

Two shouts ring out instantly and Ra’s eyes go wide as they do, trying to find the source of the shots. He can’t though, and he finds his senses as a whole are thrown off by the feeling of pain he had in his chest.

Slowly he looks down at himself, and upon seeing the wounds in his chest realizes that he’s been shot. The sight of the wound seems impossible to the man, as if it couldn’t have happened. But there they were, now oozing blood as well. He stumbles back, throwing his hand against the railing to steady himself as the sword he was holding clattered to the ground.

His hand moves up to the wound, in vain trying to staunch the flow of blood which had turned from a trickle to a river. Another shot rings out, slamming into his stomach and causing him to double over in pain.

A shadow begins to emerge from behind Bane, holding a now smoking pistol in his hand. Standing there was Deathstroke.

Ra’s was shocked.

Even kneeling on the deck, unable to even move, the emotion registered clearly on his face. “Y...you?”

“Me” Slade confirms, stepping forward besides Bane and placing the pistol back in his holster. “Wh...why?”

“Because you lied to me about coming to Gotham” he explains simply, moving up a little closer to the man who had once been his leader, though he maintains a distance between the two. “We weren’t coming here to cleanse the Earth of sin, or whatever other grand speech you wrap your plots up in”.

Slade roughly grasps the man, pulling him to his feet before backhanding him across the face, sending him careening to the deck. Ra’s was now wheezing, trying to stop from coughing up blood but failing as he is unable to suppress the wheeze that sends a fine spray of it across the deck.

Deathstroke moves to his knees, watching his former master in his death throes. “You came here for the Lazarus Pit. You just wanted to save your worthless life”. Ra’s wanted to lie and deny it, but at this point he had not even the breath for a lie and instead gurgles out helplessly. “The League, all it’s stood for for thousands of years supposedly...it’s all been a lie hasn’t it?”

Deathstroke shakes his head as Ra’s finally turns onto his back, his eyes glazing over while he looks up at the dark night sky. “Don’t answer. I already know”.

Ra’s was gone now, unseeing and unhearing, and all Slade could do was yank up his body and quickly toss it over the side of the boat. A loud and oddly satisfying splash is heard immediately after, the body being weighed down enough by the man’s robe that he begins to sink instantly beneath the black surf until his body is no longer visible. 

  
Slade turns back to Bane, both remaining silent for a minute until the man sometimes known as the Terminator begins to move back towards the bulkhead. He stops though, deciding to address the luchador. “You want to burn Gotham down right?”

“To the last brick si”.

“Good. I’m not going to stop you. All I want is the pit” he explains, making his motivations clear to the man. “This pit you spoke of” Bane asks, moving alongside the man and dunking into the bulkhead as they move back down below decks, wanting to rouse their respective forces. 

“It grants you eternal life?”

“No. It just extends it a bit” Slade says. “There used to be many around the world, but after each use, it gets a little less until it’s all gone. Ra’s used up most of them. As far as we know, there is only this one left”.

“Mierde”.

Slade stops and turns to regard the man, wondering if he’d have to kill him too, in order to keep him away from lusting after the pit. “Why? Interested in it for yourself?”

Bane surprises him by shaking his head no. “Vida is meant to be lived, and muerta embraced” he explains, though Slade would have to admit that such rationale seemed to fit for the man as he had gotten to know and conspire with him. ‘Nothing to worry about then’. The mercenary, and new head of the League of Assassins by coup, moves forward again, though Bane doesn’t stop speaking about what his philosophy was on life and death.

“If we cannot die, we never truly live, for how much of what we do in life is dictated by our fear of death?” he asks. “We have familias to leave something after us. We build homes. Monumentos. Wonders. The grande piramide of Giza itself is a monument to death and one man’s dedication to beating it. Al Ghul was weakened by the crippling fear he held of death. He whimpered in temor of it”.

“I like how you think Bane” Slade admits, not caring one bit for what would happen to Gotham under the madman’s watch, though he was curious as to why. “Why Gotham?”

“Hmm?”

“Why Gotham?” he repeats. “Why do you want it destroyed as badly as you do?”

Bane goes quiet, looking out over the legions of men sprawled around the barracks they’d made in the lower levels of the ship. Many were speaking with one another, some reading and yet others playing card games. All were engaged in vibrant activities that showed the human side to the usually stoic cadre. The one that Bane saw of his brothers all too often.

“Years ago, I lost many of my hermanos to this city and the one they call the Batman” he says ominously. “I simply want to ensure that they live beyond their fallecidos” he explains. “A monumento to their bravery, and even that of the Batman’s”.

“Sounds like you respect him”.

“I do si” Bane nods. “He defeated many of my men. Saved his city. However, it is simply a matter of honor. We were paid to do a job, we failed and now? I must scorch Gotham from the map to correct this mancha en nuestro honor”.

“Hmm...give them their orders”.

“Is that in itself an order?” Bane asks, challenge once again on his lips. Slade was walking away though, moving to where his much smaller, and following the culling of all Ra’s loyalists, much more dedicated men. “It’s a suggestion” Slade says. “You’re your own man. Do what you want”.

With that the mercenary is gone, moving into the lower levels to fetch his assassins. Bane smiles to himself and turns on the catwalk, leaning forward and grasping the cold steel railing in his massive hands. 

“Hermanos...es el momento!”

His proclamation is met with universal applause and whoops from the men who all rush to their stations, not needing Bane’s order for them to get ready for war. These men, like him, were raised in Santa Prisca, and following them overtaking the prison, under Bane’s leadership, had become skilled in the art of making war.

War and cruelty, strength and will were all they knew. They were raised in it, and their formative years led to them being completely molded by it. They knew nothing else, and they didn’t want to know nothing else.

They open their weapon lockers and draw out their Ak47s and rocket propelled grenades, planning on hitting the city with their full strength. Bane had already gone over the plan. They knew it by heart and he knew himself that they would follow every direction to the very letter.

He was proud of them.

They were ready.

‘I hope this Batman will prove to be a worthy opponent’ he thinks to himself, anticipation playing out in his chest. ‘Te rompere Batman...te rompere”.

**_Gotham Docks_ **

Haleen feels the knife slice through the rough fabric of her belt, tearing it away from her body and depriving her of many of her gadgets. Huntress….Barbara, was still on her.    
  
“Let’s see how you do without your toys” the younger woman taunts, still choking her. The blonde gurgles out, still holding onto her grappling hook. “Funny...about to...say the same thing…”.

She fires it upwards on top of the building, pulling the two figures upward through the air and disorientating Barbara who hadn’t been expecting the sudden upwards motion, lets go mid flight, sending her body skittering across the roof.

Harleen was on her feet as quickly as possible, though it was clear that Barbara was two, both now staring at one another across the distance. Harleen hated that Jason was still down below, fighting off Bronze Tiger, but she had to focus on Barbara right now. She had to.

‘Jason honey...hold on’.

She clicks a transmitter hidden on the side of her body, an emergency beacon. The Birds of Prey knew that she needed help. 

She turns back to her daughter, softening in her gaze as she just stands there. “Barbara….I want to help you sweetie”.

“How?” she asks, the rain now beating down harder and harder on the roof. “By turning me in? Like a common criminal? You know, you know deep down I did the right thing”. Barbara slowly reaches up and removes her own cowl, dropping it with a clatter to the floor. She was still wearing the same domino mask over her eyes that she wore as Robin though.

A flash of lightning cracks through the sky, and for a second, a brief second, Harleen sees her as Robin again.

“No…” she says, reaching up and undoing her own cowl, wanting to look her daughter in the eyes, and allowing her to do the same. She doesn’t drop it though, knowing she’d need to replace it at the drop of her hat should anyone else arrive.

The rain lashes at her face, though the rain drops aren’t the only sources of wetness on her cheeks. She was crying now, looking at the woman who was standing before her, still seeing the girl she loved.

“They call it Neo-Gotham now. But nothing’s changed. There’s nothing new about this place”.

“There is Barbara” she pleads. “It’s a better city. A safer one”.

“Does it deserve all that?” she asks. “After everything its done? Bruce’s parents, my father, Jason. Does it really deserve the second chance?”

“I know you do”.

Barbara scowls at that, not wanting the woman to continue to try and reach her. This wasn’t how it was meant to go. No. Harleen was supposed to argue about her view. Fight her when she didn’t give ground. She didn’t want the sorrow, the guilt she saw on the woman’s face.

She wanted revenge. Justice. 

For turning her into a soldier in their personal war and then forgetting about her when she was gone. Moving on from her.

Burying her.

“I don’t want it. I like who I am now. I made myself”.

“We both know that isn’t true Barbara” she says, psychoanalyzing her as she always did with everyone she faced. “Who made you like this Barbara?”

The girl is quiet for a moment and slowly she kicks the mask over towards Harleen’s feet. Many of her tactically efficient gear had been shaken off during the landing courtesy of her mother. She did have one more trick of her sleeve though, and she pulls out a detonator.

“You did”.

  
With that she presses the button and the helmet at Harleen’s feet begins to blink in the eyes, letting her know that it was about to blow. She gasps and rushes away, jumping across to another building while thrusting her cowl onto her head. The blast catches her though, and singes her back, sending her careening and skidding across the roof of the opposite building, whose distance was only about seven feet across.

She’d made leaps like that before. 

She’d never been on fire though. 

  
As she rolls to put out the flames, mostly on her cape, Barbara jumps across herself, apparently unscathed. She draws her crossbow, proving that they most certainly weren’t done yet.

**_The Alley Below_ **

This wasn’t working.

He couldn’t fight Bronze Tiger. Not one on one. The man was absorbing blows that would’ve torn any other man to the ground. Jason though? He was hurt. Hurt very bad.

He stops to catch his breath, leaning against a crate as Tiger cracks his knuckles ominously, moving towards him. “She said I can’t kill you, and I wont. But she didn’t say that I couldn’t almost kill you, so that might be something I’ll do” he taunts.

_ “Draw your blade Jason” _

“I can’t” he says gasping, making his assailant stop as he seemingly begins to talk to himself. “Umm...you can’t what?”

_ “You wont kill him”  _ St. Dumas assures him with a whisper. Jason looks back up, just in time to see the explosion that rocks the roof of the building above them and even the ground level they stood on. He was amazing the area was still intact with how large the blast seemed.

He laments what Barbara had become, and his heart is filled with hate for those that did it to her.

“That’s the problem” he says back, closing his eyes and then glaring at Bronze Tiger. “I want to”.

Dumas goes silent for a moment, but then his voice breaks through again.  _ “Flee then from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord with a pure heart”. _

Jason chuckles to himself. “Do you really think God is gonna help here right now?” he asks snidely, feeling the pain overtake him at the damage he’d suffered.

_ “Do no abandon your God at the first sign of trouble Jason” _ Dumas says in an understanding tone.  _ “Call out to him, and he shall deliver you from evil. You have souls to save Jason”. _

Jason stands slowly, his hand going to the hilt of his sword as he closes his eyes and begins to mouth out a prayer. “Lord...deliver thy humble servant from the evil that surrounds him…”.

“There you are boy. Thought you lost it. Maybe you were seeing St.Peter. Would’ve sucked for me” Tiger says, assured of his victory. “Wouldn’t want to explain to the boss why I killed her boy toy though personally? I don’t see what she sees in you. Then again, if the League of Assassins fixed her up...who knows what they could do with you?”

He ignores the man, continuing on his prayer and turning to face him, ready to fight. “Allow me to fight your battles lord. Make me your champion and guide my hand in my path which you have set before me”.

“Hey, what’s with all the religious mumbo jumbo?” Tiger asks, with Jason responding by drawing his sword, now awash in holy flame.

“Jesus Christ!” Tiger shouts as he backs up, not having been briefed or told about this. “No. Just a servant of his” Jason retorts, rushing forward to slash his blade against the claws that the man kept on his hands. He tried to resist, wanting to use them and catch the young man’s blade on the spikes before twisting and breaking the sword as he’d done numerous times to numerous different opponents. 

It didn’t work and instead he finds his number one weapons destroyed and some of his hair singed. Jason continues the attack though, taking the opportunity to lunge forward and smash into Tiger’s face with all of his might with his fist.

As soon as he makes contact, he knows that he’s done some serious damage, though his wrist also felt as if he’d smashed it right into a concrete wall. He pulls back and decides to use the blade in such a way as to not kill the man, though definitely injure him.

Time was of the essence and he couldn’t waste it continuing to fight him. Not when his mother and sister were in danger. He swings the blade out, impacting against the man’s hand and slicing it clean off, cauterizing the wound as soon as it passes, ensuring that he wouldn’t bleed out. Bronze Tiger hows in agony and falls back to the ground, holding the stump where his hand used to be.

Jason stands over him, staring down and bringing the sword close, stopping the man who fearfully looks up at him. “I’ve shown you more mercy than you’ve shown others” he growls out. “I wont kill you. But...I will mark you”.

He plunges the tip of the sword forward against the man’s forehead, just enough to mark the skin. He doesn’t know what he’s etching with the steel and flame, but the man howls in agony, whimpering even as Jason removes the sword.

There, imprinted on the man’s flesh, is the symbol of an upright sword, lines drawn outwards to represent the flames that emanate out from within it. “I mark you with the symbol of Dumas. May people see this mark and offer you scorn wherever you go, until you seek and find redemption”.

Bronze Tiger, so used to meting out pain and suffering, cruelty and torment, could not take what had been given to him, and continues to hold the stump of his wrist. Jason however, was quite done with the man, and he rushes through the door to the building beside him, an inner voice urging him on.

_ “Go! Save her! Save my baby girl!” _

It was Jim Gordon. He knew it.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of updates. Was not in the right headspace. Hope to get back on track soon!

**_Arkham Asylum_ **

She was quick.

That was the only thing he could really think of when Shiva thrusted a knife directly at his face, missing only by a fraction as the blade scrapes across the side of his cowl instead. He reaches out and grasps her wrist, hoping to get her to drop it.

Shiva twists about and presses her back into his chest, bending down to use the upward momentum of her straightening out her back to toss the Batman over her, sending the vigilante skidding across the ground. He is instantly on his feet, though...something felt odd.

It felt very odd. 

Shiva noticed it too, and smiles as she rises to her feet, acting as if she hadn’t a care in the world. “Feeling dizzy Batman? Perhaps you’re tired? Or….poisoned?”

He knew that he felt something strange on his neck, and Bruce reaches up to check on what that could possibly be. He finds that the knife Shiva used had actually opening part of the cowl by his neck, exposing the skin beneath.    
  
He probes the opening in his suit, and finds some sort of small dart, pierced into his skin.

He roughly retracts it, taking a glance upon it and knowing that whatever had been inside of it, wasn’t good news for him. He begins to feel even weaker now, and he falls to his knees, trying to catch his breath.

He wouldn’t die.

He knew that.

The toxin that had virtually changed his entire DNA and genetic structure, courtesy of Selina Kyle, had proven useful over the years. It had saved his life numerous times. Certain venoms and other toxins simply didn’t affect him. But this one?   
  
It was clear that whatever this was was above the run of the mill chemicals he had a resistance to. His eyes were growing blurry now, and he could make out the faint shape of Shiva walking towards him, ready to end his life with a blade.

The toxin was slowing him down. Weakening him. Making him vulnerable to a physical attack. It was the knife in the murderous woman’s hand that was going to kill him if anything. “Shiva….stop”.

The woman looks up over the man on the ground, towards the rear end of the entrance way to the Arkham’s ground. Slade was standing there, his men with him. “Deathstroke” she says cordially, though not yet dropping the knife. “Where is Ra’s?”

“Dead”.

Her eyes widen for a second at that almost earth shaking news, but she quickly puts her emotions in check and controls herself. “How? Impossible” she says, almost refusing to believe that the man who had cheated death for centuries was gone.

“I killed him”.

Shiva’s eyes narrow as she stares down the man, not out of any loyalty to Ra’s but out of curiosity as to why the man would do such a thing. ‘Is he intending to kill me next?’ she ponders, knowing that with Deathstroke it was a possibility. ‘He very well may succeed too...but he shall have to work for it’.

“And how do I know you’re telling the truth?”   
  


A low chuckling rumble escapes from under the man’s mask as other figures, certainly not from the League, enter out of the treeline, each carrying an assault weapon. Her eyes are drawn the hulking beast of a man with tubes inserted into his arms, pumping a strange green liquid that also ran through his veins. 

“Have you ever known me to lie?” 

Of all the things the mercenary was, a idle boaster was not one of them. If Deathstroke said that someone was dead, they were most certainly dead. She looks back towards Batman, now struggling to get to his feet, though his effect is stopped by her bringing her boot down on his shoulder, cracking his collarbone and sending him sprawling out onto the ground.

Bruce feels nothing but pain, and his eyesight is overtaken by a blinding cataclysm of light. His hand goes to his chest as the pain gets worse and worse. He recognized the signs. He was having a heart attack. 

The vigilante falls onto his side, inadvertently curling up inside of himself, as if he was attempting to shield himself from the world by such an action. “He doesn’t look so good”.

“Es un moribundo” Bane says, moving up towards the man and kneeling to look him over. “It is such a pity Batman” he sighs, letting out a long exhale. “I see now that I shall not have the guerra I wished with you. But...I shall still have mi venganza”.    
  
He reaches out with his massive hand, grabbing the man by the arm and making to move him when Bruce lashes out with a batarang he had covertly slipped into his hand at the man’s approach. The pain he was experiencing….he hadn’t felt something like it before. His body was being battered, inside and out, and he saw no way to escape.

“Ha...Ha….rl….”.

She wasn’t there, and the sudden thought that she wasn’t made him glad. ‘I’m going to die...aren’t I?’

Bane meanwhile, was slashed across the face, the sharpe edge of the metallic object slicing open his mask and with it some of his skin, just barely missing his eye. He rushes back, grasping his face with his hand as Shiva moves in to deliver the finishing blow, seeing the Batman as still being a threat.

Just as she was about to plunge the knife into the man’s back, Bane turns and roughly charges her, taking her off guard as he he grasps her hand. She’s about to retaliate when Bane begins to speak, this being the end of his offensive action against the skilled martial artist. “No. El es mio”.

He turns back to Batman sees the expression on his face, one of mixed emotions. Partly joy, partly fear, but mostly? It seemed to speak of him being at peace despite his struggle.

_ “Yes son”. _

Bruce slowly looks up, hearing the voice that he hadn’t heard in decades now. “Dad…?” he asks, seeing a bright light at the end of what looked like a long hallway. A shadow was standing there against the backdrop of the nearly blinding light, though the man wasn’t alone. “Mom?”

“Ohh Bruce...we’re so proud of you sweetheart”.

“Come home Bruce. You’ve done your part son”.

He makes to crawl towards the light, dragging his body across the ground, though every movement feels like torture. All he could focus on were his parents. They were so close to him, after so far apart.

Bane was watching all this, critically studying the prey he’d fought for so long to find. And now? He didn’t know what to make of him. The only thing he knew was that an example needed to be set, even if he was to be robbed of his final fight, the one that was owed to him.

“Miguel, Francisco” he calls out, bringing two soldiers forward. “Si commandante?”

“Bring him to our base de operaciones” he commands, prompting the two men to lean down and grasp the man under each of his shoulders, picking him up to his feet and beginning to drag him away. One, in a moment of curiosity that seizes him, reaches for the man’s mask though Bane stops him.

“No. The hora is not right mi amigo. Not yet”.

The man nods in acquiescence, his loyalty, like all of the others, unquestioning. “No...mom...dad…” Bruce weakly calls out, unable to fight back. He felt as if the ground was being cut out from under him, and all he had to stand upon was thin air. 

The men carried him away regardless, saving him for their leader’s plan.

“And what about us?” Shiva asks, looking towards Deathstroke. She could sense that their plans had changed and that now she had to see what the man had planned. He was forthcoming, something that the now deceased Ra’s never was. “We look for the Lazarus pit”.

“And them?”

She was of course referring to Bane and his men, now seemingly disinterested in everything that was happening other than the next step of the monster that led them. “What about them? We stick to the shadows” he says in response, walking away and gesturing for the other members of the League to follow him, something that they do as Shiva was apparently going with him. 

“And what about Huntress? And Ravager?”

“They can find their own way” he says. “It’s become abundantly clear that we’ve been doing nothing but furthering Ra’s plans to live forever under the cover of some guiding principle”.

Shiva was unsurprised by such a revelation, having guessed that Ra’s was nowhere near as altruistic or ideologically motivated as he seemed to claim long ago. She had only stayed with the League due to inertia, and a lack of anything else to pursue.

“And what are we to do now?”

“Further our own goals” he says simply. “If a man like Ra’s, whose lived for centuries, can look after himself and lie so flagrantly, why can’t we?”

Her eyes widen at that, the man suggesting that they break the ultimate taboo within the League. “You want us to use the Lazarus pit?”

He nods in affirmation.

“What of your daughter?” she asks again, knowing that he most likely wouldn’t care about Huntress, but surely some part of him would want his daughter with him for whatever he was planning on doing. “She’s always been a disappointment Shiva. You of all people should know how that feels”.

She looks away, knowing that there was nothing she could say at that moment. ‘Cassandra’ she thinks, remembering the daughter she’d left behind so long ago. It wasn’t as Slade thought it to be though. She didn’t leave the nine year old at a home she knew would be safe because she was a disappointment. 

‘I was the disappointment Cassandra…’.

  
Slade of course didn’t hear her inner apology, nor did she think he’d care if he could. He was no different than Ra’s in the end, though at the very least he was more honest. “You can have a part in it too Shiva”.

“No”.

Her instant refusal was interesting to him, as he certainly knew that she didn’t have any moral quandaries over honor or the like as Bane obviously did.    
  
“Hmmm...why not?”

“I’m not interested in eternal life”.

The man goes silent, reading her through his mask. “You want to punish yourself for something”. The woman doesn’t have time to answer as a shot rings out, slamming right into the ninja beside her, killing them instantly and sending their limp body to the floor. 

“They’re trying to take Batman!” Bullock shouts, having advanced close enough to see what was going on with the Caped Crusader, and now wanting to stop the kidnapping. The other officers join in, and soon a barrage of gunfire bursts out.    
  
Shiva turns, ready to fight as do many of the other assassins, not wanting to let an assault upon their persons go without retribution. “No!” Slade shouts back, drawing his sidearm and covering the retreating soldiers of Bane and his own men, which he orders back. “We don’t have time for this” he tells Shiva. “We want to be out of Gotham by the time Bane is done with it. This isn’t our war”.

With that, the League breaks ranks and begins to rush back into the woods that dot the pathway and road out of the Asylum, though the police tried to remain on their tails in hot pursuit.    
  
They simply couldn’t match the speed of which their opponents moved, and soon, it was a moot point. Bane also had air support.

An attack helicopter rushes down from the sky, swooping the tree line and opening up on the line of advancing cops, spraying the ground right before their feet in warning. Renee, watching her men recoil back in fear, looks towards a SWAT officer in a rage. “YOU’RE NOT TAKING BATMAN!”

She grasps his rifle, a m4 rifle, and raises it, placing the butt in her shoulder as she takes aim at the helicopter pilot. As the pilot notices her, he turns the craft, trying to get a lock on right as she does the same, putting a bead on the shadowy figure visible through the glass of the canopy that covers the cockpit.

Harvey was rushing out towards her, huffing and puffing as his fat legs propelled him forward, wanting to knock Renee to the ground. “Renee! Get down!”

He was too slow, and he saw it already happening in his eyes. The commissioner getting lit up by the rapid firing machine guns mounted to the underside of the aircraft. 

What happens instead though, almost defied imagination.

  
Renee lets loose with a controlled burst, sending a line of rounds stitching right across the pilot, killing him or at the very least mortally wounding him. No one can be sure. What could be ascertained was that the pilot’s finger was still on the trigger, weapons primed.

His body slumps forward, sending the helicopter moving forward through the air and putting its aim a few feet off from Renee as it opens fire, instead killing a group of blue uniformed police officers, their bodies riddled like swiss cheese.

The helicopter continues to move closer to the ground on the same trajectory as that of the line of police cars. Bullets stitch across a patrol car as well, igniting the gas and thus setting out a fiery explosion, only exacerbated seconds later by how the chopper crashes into the already blazing inferno. 

Harvey gets to Renee just in time to toss himself atop her, managing to shield the ecstatic woman as shrapnel flies all about. Many other officers aren’t so lucky though, and they are impaled by bits and pieces of practically red hot steel. 

So many are dead and wounded, lying about as the flames continue to rise higher and higher, reaching the front facade of the Asylum, setting the main entranceway on fire.

“A PERFECT SHOT! PERFECT! PERFECT! PERFECT!” Renee repeats over and over, proving to the detective that without a doubt, she was gone. “Dammit Renee...dammit!” he screams at her, though the hispanic woman shows no signs of responding, simply continuing to mutter perfect while reaching down and frowning at her dress, which now had dirt and cuts all along it.

“My dress is ruined...ruined, ruined, ruined!” she whines, tears of frustration leaking out. “How can I show myself to Tatsu like this huh? She has to come home to a perfect house and a perfect wife!”

Harvey didn’t try to fight her on any of this, and just looks around again to hear the cries of the wounded. His radio crackles to life and he hears the sound of other officers under fire. “Bullock!”

He slowly reaches down for it and engages the radio, not knowing what to say as Montoya furiously picks at her dress, rocking back and forth in the dirt. “Not perfect at all! Dirty! Dirty!”

“This is Bullock”.

“Bullock where the hell are you?” the other officer asks, stopping to unload his pistol before returning to the radio. “We’re fucking surrounded on all sides! We need help!”

Bullock slowly puts the radio back to his mouth, wishing he could tell the man that he would be on his way. “I...we can’t help”.

“Why the fuck not?” the man snarls, not understanding the situation on the other end of the line at all. A few officers at the Asylum had started to pick themselves up, but practically all of them were wounded to some degree or another. 

Besides, with most of the vehicles, aside from the ambulances carrying the now frightened and disorientated patients away, were destroyed in the crash. 

“Bullock, they’re surrounding us around here. We can’t hold them for long. They’re trying to get into the...AHHHH!”

The transmission is cut off, at least with the other officer’s voice. He continues to hear sounds as the city is enveloped in all out war. He couldn’t do anything to stop it. Montoya was...not herself and the Batman? He was taken. He didn’t look good either and if Harvey had to hazard a guess he’d bet on this being the vigilante’s last rodeo.

These guys looked like they meant business and the man didn’t seem up to snuff when he’d started the fight, certainly not like he was all those years ago.

Harvey just focuses on the immediate area, picking Renee up by her shoulders and working on guiding her over towards the ambulance. “This way Renee. They’ll get you all fixed up sweetie”.

  
She beams up at him, still oblivious to the situation around them. “They’ll make me perfect again?”

He nods, not knowing what to do other than to play along with her delusions for the moment. “Yeah Renee...they’ll make you perfect again”.

He continues to walk her over to the ambulance, surprisingly the one in which Harvey Dent, the former mayor was now in. He looks down at the woman and helps her up into the vehicle, taking a blanket and wrapping it around her. The man, being a bit more stable than the others at this point, was helping to the best of his abilities. 

“I’ve got her detective Bullock” he says comfortingly to the man who nods and smiles back gravely. “Thanks Mr. Mayor”.

“N...no…”.

The man had developed a bit of a stutter, especially when encountering very nerve wracking situations which this most certainly counted as. “You’re still mayor to me buddy, and when you run again, you’ll win”. 

He looks back at the task before him, an immense one that included reforming and leading the remaining officers of the GCPD, and trying to get into the city major as quickly as possible. 

‘Where are all our so called heroes?’ he ponders, spitting contemptuously at the metahumans that called this city home, though had seemed to taken Huntress’ warning to heart and remained tucked away in their hidey holes.

‘Dammit...dammit...dammit’.

**_Titan’s Tower_ **

“Mama, I need to go!” Konn’r shouts back, refusing to give in as his mother remains steadfast.

“Absolutely not Konn’r” she says. “This isn’t your fight bumgorf. You need to stay in the tower. We all do. The Huntress said that…”.

“And I can fly fast enough to find the bombs!” he protests. “I know I can. She won’t even see me. I’ll scour the city! I can do it mama!”

“No. I won’t allow you to get hurt!”

His eyes open with a wide and pleading expression. “But I’m a hero. I have to save people. If I can do something, and I don’t...and people die...then it’s my fault”.

He had begun to cry a bit, the six year old not quite understand just how far the events of that day had gone, though he seemed to have a grasp of the stakes. Raina and Garfield were looking on besides Terra, unsure of what to do. On one hand?    
  
They didn’t want their nephew anywhere near the danger. He was too important to risk, too precious to them.

On the other?   
  
They didn’t want their city to be blown to a thousand little pieces, nor did they want everyone in it to die. “Konn’r is the only one who would be fast enough” Terra says quietly, Raina nodding along. “Da”.

Garfield was shocked. 

“Mama there is no way we’re letting him out there!”

Komand'r was grateful for the backup, and she smiles at the green man who led their team to victory after victory during their time in Gotham. “And what would you have us do Garfield? Sit here? Wait for our tovarishchi to die?”

“I….”.

He turns and looks back at little Konn’r, his eyes looking up pleadingly at his uncle. He turns back to Komand’r as well, unsure of what to think. He knows that he needs to confer with someone though. “Grid” he calls out, a holographic head appearing as soon as the word escapes the man’s lip.

“Was waiting for you to call me”.

The former Cyborg was clearly upset as well, though he hid it so nobody could see it. “Yeah...have you run a scan over the city like I asked?”

“I did….an hour ago” the man sighs out.

“And?”

“I think I’ve got the locations of the bombs figured out”.

“Think or know?” Raina interjects, not wanting to work on uncertainties at this point in time. “I know where they are” Grid clarifies. “At least where all the suspicious stuff is”.

Garfield stops for a moment, taking time to consider the options he had on the table. “Alright...Konn’r buddy….can you fly fast enough to get them all?”

The young boy nods enthusiastically. “I know I can!”

Garfield smiles and rubs his shoulder in appreciation, while Blackfire looks on in horror. “Garfield!”. Her leader turns back to her and has an apologetic look in his eye. “I’m sorry K. But we don’t have a choice. Nobody else is going to be fast enough and the city is going to be blown up”.

“We’ve got even more problems” Grid calls out, pulling up a screen that shows the rampaging soldiers of Bane going through the city. Civilians were being executed on live television. “Der’mo” Terra says, smacking her robot fist against a table and denting it down.

“Mommy I can do it” the little boy further pleads while Blackfire’s eyes were stuck upon the screen, watching a mother hold her son close, waiting in the makeshift line guarded by soldiers. That line ended in their deaths, and as a mother herself she couldn’t help but be moved by the sight of her holding the sobbing girl and trying to keep it together. 

“Konn’r” she says simply. “Okay…”.

That word was enough, and he rushes up into the air to hug her tightly. “I wont let you down mama”. She nods and kisses his cheek as she holds him. “I know. You never have and never will my little hope”.

She puts him down and waits as Garfield speaks to Grid, the cybernetic intelligence obviously printing out the location of all the bombs for the young boy. Garfield soon as the pages in his hand, Grid having brought them up from the printer in the office room where they handled the business aspect of the Titans.

It even had a coffee machine, courtesy of Raina who snapped anyone’s head off in the morning before she had her coffee. Garfield had learned to fear his girlfriend at this time. Even little Konn’r, who was invulnerable, avoided his aunt as she stalked through the halls to the kitchen at this Early hour, even though he was the only one immune to her wrath.

But that wasn’t the point now.    
  
No.

The bombs were.

  
Garfield walks over towards Konn’r and hands him the map, Grid having conveniently marked the location of the bombs on the map for the boy. “Alright buddy, Uncle Grid outlined all of them okay? I know that brain of yours moves pretty fast too so do you see these spots?”

Konn’r was already scanning over the page, taking in all the information with the help of Raina’s concentration techniques she’d taught him to help him manage his powers. “Alright, got it Uncle Gar”.

“Just the bombs” the man warns. “I don’t want to see you out there doing all kinds of other stuff. As soon as all of the bombs are gone the rest of us and whoever is with the League right now can get out to fight alright? You leave that to us, but the bombs are what’s important”.

He nods vigorously, agreeing with his uncle. “Alright. Good little buddy”. Beast Boy lowers to his knees and hugs the boy tightly, knowing that he was beyond worried about sending him out there. But what choice did they have?

‘Being the leader was going to require these kinds of tough decisions from the start dude’ he reminds himself. “Let’s get you out there Konn’r. The sooner you’re out, the sooner you’re back”.

“Good luck Konn’r!” Terra says.

“Nastoyashchiy geroy you are Konn’r. A true hero” Raina coos out, smiling lightly. 

“Booyah, go kick some ass pal!”

“Grid!” Blackfire chastises. “Do not tease my child your foul language!”. She turns back to her son and smiles again, rubbing his hair and kissing him on the forehead again just as the bay door out to the air opened for the Titans.    
  
They had one in the living room because everyone could fly, and it was just simpler than having to go all the way down to the garage anytime they wanted to leave the Tower.

“Alright...go before anyone notices anything amiss with the tower” Blackfire urges him on. “Ngyrfal’ther Hirtrok”.

With that, the little boy is gone without even a sign that he was ever there, moving through the air with practiced ease. Garfield turns to Blackfire as the gate closes, wordlessly giving the orders for the orders for his team to get ready. Blackfire needed no such order, and as such was always ready to fight.

“Garfield?”

“Yes?”

“If my son is hurt...expect me to skin you alive”.

The green man nods and smiles lightly, though he fully meant his words. “I’ll help you if he does”. She nods, giving a little smile back before turning away, wanting to take a moment to herself. “What did you say to him in Tamaranean?” he asks quickly, wanting to know.

“It was a traditional battle blessing” she says. “For him to be brave and strong. It translates roughly to ‘let not war change your spirit”.

With that she leaves, and the green man is left alone with his thoughts. They indeed were at war once again from the looks of it. This was different than busting up purse snatchers and destroying Gotham’s organized crime syndicates.

This wasn’t even like the missions that led them out of the city, to other nations against other metahumans.

No. This was like the Tantalus war. 

He shivered at the memories of that horrible conflict, whose sourness and the great sense of loss it brought was always under the camaraderie and brotherhood that had been forged by the war. He knew that now wasn’t the time. After all, they had a job to do.

‘Let’s get to work’.

**_Gotham Docks, Shipping Office Rooftop_ **

Somehow they were fighting in the stairwell, Barbara having pushed Harleen back and even slammed her through the door to the rooftop access point. Each blow that landed felt like a cinderblock was being slammed into her, and Harleen really wasn’t sure how much she could take.

“YOU FAILED!” 

Another punch impacts against her midsection, knocking the air out of her. She had to do something quickly. “I DID MORE FOR THIS CITY IN TEN MINUTES AT THE ASYLUM THAN YOU’VE DONE IN TEN YEARS!” That sent shivers up and down her spine. ‘What did she do there?’. Harleen wasn’t aware. She hadn’t heard from Bruce, or really anyone, though with what Barbara had become….she could guess at what had happened.

‘My little girl is a killer’.

That thought kept repeating over and over again in her mind. She couldn’t shake it. The image of Barbara with blood on her hands. It enraged her, not because of Barbara’s actions but because she felt that deep down? It was her fault that the blood was there in the first place. 

This gives her enough strength to catch Barbara’s fist as it comes up to impact against her chin, twisting it up to bring the girl off of her balance. She twists and turns so that she’s in a good position to deliver a much more effective counterattack, delivering a brutal punch right to her side and slamming her face into the wall.

“YOU WANNA BE BETTER THAN ME!” Harleen says loudly, though her meaning behind her words lacked accusation. Barbara turns, though she was still within the blonde vigilante’s grasp. “BUT YOU WON’T BE! NOT LIKE THIS!”

With that final word Harleen punches Barbara so hard in face that the wall, already flimsy and decaying due to age, gives way, and the termite eaten wood cracks, causing the girl to continue flying through the darkness and into one of the abandoned office rooms above. Huntress slides across the floor, stopping in the middle of the room.

Batwoman advances on her, moving through the wreckage with pain registered on her face, though she was glad for the cowl that hid most of it.

Barbara reacts by pulling out another crossbow, aiming it directly at the woman and stopping her in her tracks, though it wasn’t out of fear. No. She just couldn’t stand to see what Barbara had become. “I tried to save you Barbara…I’m sorry”.

“Do you think that that is what this is all about?” the younger redhead asks as if in shock, slowly getting to her feet while not letting her crossbow move off of her mother. “That you let me die?”

That last part was delivered with a fierceness that belayed the fact that deep down Barbara did blame them for not saving her. She softens though, and tries to face her without breaking into tears. She is unsuccessful though, and the tears overflow over the mask and move down her cheeks.

Harleen wants to rush to her, hold her in her arms and comfort her as she did when she was a child. Her and Jason….all she could still see them as were children. Her babies.

“I forgive you Harleen, and Bruce...for not saving me. But why the hell...are they still alive!”

She turns and with a kick smashes open a door to the other room where four figures were tied to chairs. The first one to look up was the Joker, who was trying to figure it all out. It came to him quickly enough though, and he smiles wide at recognition of the girl.

“HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!”

Slowly he begins to hop the chair up and down, making his way into the adjoining room. “I can’t believe it! Little Robin girl! Aww isn’t that sweet? She came all the way back from the dead to make this little mommy daughter reunion happen. And she invited little ole’ me!” he says happily before frowning and looking back at the other three hostages.

“And all these other losers too unfortunately. Even my disappointing protege. Married...bleh. What’s next? A few kids that they don’t even psychologically torture?” he asks before laughing and turning back to the former Robin who was working very hard to contain her rage.

“Our daughter though...mmm she turned out better! Really excited to see how this goes! You shoulda seen her Batsy! How she ripped up those other freaks at the Asylum. Barely anything left. Now, how about we take a picture? Hmm? Let’s get one of me and the kid first, then you and me, and then the three of us! And then one with our backs to a cliff, and then one of her falling throug the...AHHHH!”

Barbara had smacked him harshly in the back of the head with her crossbow, sending him, still bound to the floor before pressing the tip of the bolt against his temple. Harleen didn’t move, part of her unable too as this utterly insane situation plays out in front of her.

“You be as quiet as possible or I put one in your lap first” Barbara warns.

Joker was however, as usual, completely ignores the warning and continues on. “Part pooper...no cake for you”.

Barbara moves upwards again, returning her crossbow to being focused on Harleen. “He’s part of this, but he’s more like a party favor. No, the real reason we’re here..” she says while stopping to look down at the floor where a series of ropes were, leading to the legs of the chairs. She reaches down with one hand and pulls one fiercely, sending one of the chairs in the room falling backwards and causing the occupant to let out a moan.

She pulls the chair, now on its back, across the floor to the main room where she was now confronting her mother. Harleen doesn’t do anything, her eyes fixated on the other two still in the opposite room. She didn’t know what to make of this, not yet.

Barbara pulls the chair up again and slams the butt of her crossbow grip on the back of the man’s head before pulling up the mask to reveal Deacon Blackfire. “Is him”.

Harleen was shocked to see the man, having expected him to perish amongst the others that Barbara had supposedly killed at the asylum, though now it all made perfect sense. She wanted to send a message. 

“Please...please God...deliver your servant…”.

Barbara backhands him, ripping open his cheek as she does, causing him to squeal out in pain. “Your god isn’t going to come and save you”.

“Stop…” Harleen begins, knowing where this was going. “Robin, just...please stop. Don’t do this”.

“Don’t do what?” Barbara taunts. “Kill the man who took EVERYTHING from me?” she stresses. “End the life of the man who killed hundreds of innocent people and hurt even more? Don’t do that?”

“Robin…”.

“Stop. Calling. Me. That” Barbara says with a light chuckle. “I’m not Robin. Not anymore”.

“You’re always going to be Robin to me”.

The motherly attention and gesture seems to only anger the woman even more, and she returns the crossbow to her. “Then why didn’t you kill them? If I was such a beloved daughter to you...why is he still alive?”

Harleen didn’t have an answer, and that coincided directly with Barbara having much more to say. “If it had been you, or Batman killed by this madman’s scheme, I would’ve done nothing less, but search the planet and then kill him for what he did!”

She turns to Joker and kicks him, directly in the mouth. “And this piece of scum too!”

“You don’t understand sweetie…” Harleen begins, showing the others that this was much more than just a fight between two divergent trains of thought. This was a family issue, one which they were caught in the deadly crossfire of.

“What?” she chides. “Don’t understand what? That it’s so morally reprehensible to save lives? That it’s just too hard to cross that line?”

“No!” Harleen snaps before calming and turning away. “Because...it would be too easy. Your father and I...there isn’t a day that doesn’t go by where we don’t want to kill him” she admits. “I’ve dreamed every night of going to the Asylum and snapping his neck for hurting my little girl”.

Barbara’s tears were going stronger, remembering her mother much more clearly as the fog of her rage begins to lighten, but only a bit. “But if we do that….we may never come back”.

“Why?” she asks, in disbelief. “I’m not talking about killing every random purse snatcher or pimp. I’m just talking about them! Just them! And doing it because…”. At this she stops, trying to get her voice back on track as she chokes up. Soon though, she gazes deeply into her mother’s eyes. “Because they took me away from you”.

Harleen feels her lip quiver but she calms herself down, knowing that she had to stay strong in this situation. “I can’t. I’m sorry”.

Barbara’s tears slow and her eyes narrow. “You don’t have a choice”.

  
She reaches behind her and draws out a pistol that had been tucked into her waistband and tosses it to Harleen, who catches it but holds it in her hands as if it was some sort of strange toy. “You know I can’t…”.

Barbara smashes the chair with her foot and brings the former cult leader to his feet, using him as a human shield and placing him in front of her, her face at eye level still as the man struggled against her. “You have a choice! One you’ve never made yet!”

“Robin…”.

“STOP CALLING ME THAT!” she seethes. “No! No! You’re not talking your way out of this one! You’re not getting in my head!”

Joker laughs from his position on the floor, looking up at the girl and her captive who was praying with his skeletal hands folded before him. “You are going to shoot him, or I will!”

With that she brings her crossbow back to the side of the man’s head. “And if you want to stop me, you’re going to have to kill me!”.

“I can’t…”.

“You’ll have to shoot me! Right in my face!”

Harleen looks back down at the gun and lets it drop from her hands, allowing it to clatter to the floor as she does so. Barbara looks up in shock, not knowing what to do. She’d hope that the entire situation would’ve goaded her into acting, but it didn’t. Instead Harleen turns, making to walk away.

“Decide! You have too!”

Barbara slowly turns the crossbow on her mother’s back instead of at the man’s head. “You have too! You have too!”. She was practically sobbing now, seeing this as another betrayal by her mother. Little did she know that Harleen did make a choice, and that choice was to save her daughter.

She lets loose a small batarang from her sleeve, and turns rapidly, narrowly missing the crossbow bolt that Barbara had loosed due to her lack of response. She lets the tiny metal wing go, and as it whirls through the air it slices through Barbara’s hand, causing her to drop the weapon and the man, who scurries away to the corner, now crying himself.

Barbara falls to her rear, slumped up against the back of a desk, looking up in shock at Harleen who just looks on her with pity. Joker, slowly working his hands out of his bonds, was beyond amused. “OHHHHH! You did it! You bitch you did it! Hahahahahahah!”

Harleen didn’t feel like celebrating, especially not with the utterly defeated look on her daughter’s face. She watches as Barbara’s unhurt hand moves up, a detonator inside of it. With a click of her thumb, she presses down on it, starting the countdown on a pile of C4 explosive which had been placed off to the side. 

  
Harleen notices it and watches as the light blink, making her more than nervous.

She lunges at the bombs, trying to find a way to defuse them as the countdown moves from thirty to twenty nine. Her gloved fingers idly slide over the wires, trying to figure out through her training and muscle memory which one led to the primer and battery pack.

Joker had broken free however, and lunges over towards Batwoman, pulling her off of the mass of explosives and pinning her to the floor by her wrists. “NO! DON’T SPOIL IT THIS IS BETTER!” he teases, moving his hands to her throat to choke her. “Bing bang boom, we all go out together! Don’t you just love a happy ending?”

He begins to chuckle, and Harleen feels the lack of air acutely, and she looks over to see that Barbara hasn’t moved herself from her position on the floor, apparently being content with dying as well. 

She didn’t know what to do, and instead continues to struggle against Joker while trying to reach for the bomb. 

They were running out of time, and yet all that could be heard was Joker’s laughter, and Deacon Blackfire’s prayers, mumbled out between tears.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Sorry that this chapter is a little shorter. I hope the content makes it better. I've had a really bad day. Happy Valentines Day)

**_Gotham City_ **

Konn’r was flying as fast as he could, which as it turned out happened to be faster than a speeding bullet. Nobody could even see them as he moved through the air, going to the locations that his mind had allowed him to memorize.

So far?   
  


He’d deactivated three bombs right under the subway line.

It had been easy. He just followed the line from the detonator to the battery pack, using his vision to first sense where that was and then using his laser beams to destroy the battery without actually detonating the explosives.

He did have other problems.

All around him the city was under attack, and men were killing some civilians wherever he went. Lining them up against walls to be shot. He hated them! He knew what the bad guys were trying to do and in his young mind he wanted to take them all on himself. He probably could’ve to be honest. Nobody was expecting a Kryptonian in the city. Especially not these goons.

But he couldn’t, not yet. Not until every bomb was decommissioned and couldn’t be blown. Only then could the other heroes expose themselves to the threat and start fighting back.

‘I hope mommy lets me fight!’ he thinks excitedly, in a childish way due to his innate innocence. He didn’t understand fully the ramifications of death, having that youthful delusion that death affected only other people.

He shoots another beam from his eyes and takes out yet another bomb. He smiles but that smile drops as he hears the scream of a woman before the staccato of gunfire. He closes his eyes and moves off again at high speed, the sound still reaching him but warped by how fast he was going.

It was almost like he was moving through time itself and the walls of the tunnel formed by his speedy movement were magnifying the sounds of horror. It enraged him. Knowing that these people were here, hurting the city and the people?   
  


‘I wish they were dead!’ 

The thought took him by surprise, as did the second thought that went through his head. If he wanted them dead, he could do it. He could kill them all so easily. They wouldn’t be able to stop him. Nobody would!

‘You’re better than that bumgorf’.

His mother’s voice, always his moral constant, echoes out in his head. He feels ashamed now for even having the thought. His mother had always told him about being better, about how he had to be a beacon of hope for the people of Earth, the one his father should’ve been and yet failed to be.

‘No’ he says with a sigh, having monotonously continued on with his task of disarming the bombs, feeling the whole thing to be a lot less fun now. He’d gotten most of them though, and his mind can’t recall any further positions where they might be as he gets to the final bomb underneath the service tunnel to GCPD.

He rushes off back to the tower, still feeling sour over the thoughts of killing and how easily they’d come into his head. ‘I’ll talk to mama...she always knows what to say’ he thinks, comforted by that thought immensely. ‘I’m not a bad guy. I don’t kill. I’m a hero. I’m not my father’.

With that, he sees the tower standing on Miagani Island, and slows down, not wanting to crash directly into it like he’d done two years earlier. He still remembers how upset everyone was, though nobody yelled at him. 

_ “Ohh Konn’r” Blackfire said with a smile, looking down at her sheepish little boy who stood in the shards of glass he’d made explode outward by crashing through the window. She got to her knees to rub his shoulder, her armor protecting her from the glass. “Are you okay?” _

_ “Yes mommy...I’m sorry”. _

_ “Well, nobody was hurt bumgorf but you must be more careful. You’re stronger than other people, and I know that’s hard to remember and understand” she soothed while rubbing her fingers over his ear and through his dark locks. “I know mama...I’m sorry”. He had begun to cry, something that instantly soothed the anger of the other team members.  _

_ “Shhh...it’s okay. We’ll work on it together little tovarisch” Raina said, moving to his other side. Terra was there too, shrugging. “No use crying over broken glass”. _

_ “Yeah buddy, it’s no big deal. Just something for us to watch out for in the future” Garfield say while turning into a bunny and hopping into the little boys arms, gently nuzzling his face to calm him. Konn’r had laughed and looked up at his family, as that was what they were, family, and felt safe and happy. _

_ “Come Konn’r” Blackfire had said, taking his hand as the green rabbit hopped out of his arms and morphed back into his human shape, watching the mother and son move off. “I have to get this glass off of you and then you have to have a bath”. _

He didn’t know why this memory came to him right at that moment, but he does know that he could never kill, not if his family was relying on him. After all, death wasn’t just like broken glass, and it couldn’t be fixed with an “I’m sorry”.

The bay door at the side of the tower opens, and he moves quickly through, not as worried about being spotted now that the bombs had been taken out of the game. He skids across the floor, just stopping in front of the couch as his mother rushes to him and takes him up in a hug. 

“Konn’r!”

She holds him tight and squeezes him with her typical Thanagarian strength, though the little boy could take it and give it back in equal measure. “Mama! I got the bombs!”

“Way to go little dude!”

“Booyah!”

“A real Titan!”

“Vashe zdorov’ye!”

He was smiling, ear to ear now as his family basically lavished him with praise. His happiness, and indeed their celebration, is cut short as he hears something, though it was nothing to the others. He could pick it up with his advanced hearing.

An explosion, somewhere in the city.

“Uncle Grid?” he calls out worriedly, the man having already heard it as well though through his sonic harmonizers he’d set up throughout the city. Titan listening posts basically. “Ohh shit…” he says, not caring at that moment about being caught cursing in front of Konn’r.

“What’s going on chrome dome?”

“We’ve got an explosion. Something happened. Shit, shit, shit...trying to get a read on it!” the voice calls out worriedly, shocking the other team members as they’d never seen the man worried. “Where the hell was it?”

Konn’r begins crying, already feeling that his first mission as a hero had ended in failure and that whatever had happened had been his fault. “Konn’r? What’s wrong?” his mother asks, turning to him as her major concern was always going to be her son.

“This..this is my fault. I missed one...I...I…”.

“No buddy this ain’t on you at all” Grid calls out. “This one came from the docks. I didn’t even run a diagnostics there because...well...it’s abandoned so I didn’t even think...it’s my fault Kon” he soothes, though the little boy keeps crying. “If someone died…”.

“Nobody died due to the explosion” Grid calls out. “At least I don’t think so. Nobody is ever at the docks. It wasn’t big enough either little buddy...it was a lot smaller than the ones you took out, probably why I didn’t see it. Wasn’t scanning for that kind of stuff…”.

“Regardless” Raina interrupts. “We must get out there. Now!”

Garfield nods, knowing that now that the bomb threat was effectively defused they could act to protect the remainder of Gotham, now under siege once more. “Titans, Go!”

Raina summons up one of her black disks and hops aboard it while Terra brings up a rock that she’s able to force to fly through the air. Beast Boy just turns into an eagle and flies through the window, following after his girlfriend and Terra.

Blackfire looks at her son, wiping his tears with her thumb. “Do you want to come with me?” she asks, a feeling in the pit of her stomach telling her to ask, but still fearful of putting him in danger. ‘He is strong. Stronger than them. They can’t hurt him’ she tries to remind herself, unable to turn off being a mother. 

“Can...can I?”

“Yes bumgorf. It’s time. It’s time that they see a symbol of hope once again”.

She thinks about something, and decides that...it’s the right time. “Stay here, one moment. Wait for mommy!” She levitates into the air and then rushes down the stairwell, not bothering with the steps as she is able to fly. He listens and patiently waits, wondering what’s going on. 

She apparently went down to the work bay, retrieving a can of red spray paint. She rushes back up the stairwell to find Konn’r, still patiently waiting. “Come here sweetheart…”.

He does so, and walks towards his mother, who shakes the can and holds him still. “We’re going to work on something better after this but for now?” she says, pulling his shirt out to begin spraying the red paint over the blue shirt he wore. “This will do”. She focused, sticking her tongue out and biting it as she gets to the closest approximation she can, careful as well to avoid getting any on the boy himself.

She is done quickly enough though, and she puts the can on the table while Konn’r looks at the shirt to see the infamous “s” symbol. “Mama...this is his symbol” he says worriedly, to which she responds by placing a hand on his cheek and smiling.

“No. It’s your symbol” she says. “People are going to see it and think of him…” he replies morosely. “At first yes…”.

She tilts his head up with her fingers and looks deeply into his eyes as she speaks. “But after a while? They’ll see you, and they’ll see all the amazing things I see. Someone that cares, someone who is selfless and most importantly...my hope”.

He looks away, unsure of what to make of that as Blackfire stands and admires how her son looks at that moment. He looked a bit like a child who had waited until the last moment to make his Halloween costume but it would do.

Across his shirt was the S, representing hope as she had come to know on Krypton. ‘Fitting’. She slowly levitates into the air, her joy at such a sight pushing her onwards. “Now, let’s go out and save Gotham Konn’r”.

The little boy smiles up at his mother and nods in agreement with his mother before joining her in the air, the two of them taking off in tandem as they rocket across the sky, heading into the city to join the other Titans in combating Bane’s army.

Konn’r just hoped that they weren’t too late to save people, having seen too much death already to allow any more to happen on his watch. 

**_Seconds Before, Gotham Dockyards Shipping Manifest Office_ **

Jason had rushed up the stairs as quickly as possible, knowing that Harleen and Barbara had to be in this building as the explosion had thrown them both across the gap from the opposing structure.

The stairs were old, rotten almost, and part of him was fearful that the stairs he was rapidly moving up wouldn’t be able to hold his armored weight. That didn’t matter to him in the long run though, and he pushed himself forward, hearing the frantic voice of St. Dumas in his ear, urging him on.

_ “Go knight! Go!” _

He finally reaches the second landing, and throws himself through a door to one of the upstairs offices. He has just enough time to take in the sight of how everything had gone wrong. First and foremost, he sees Joker choking out his mother, and Barbara...Barbara looked up at him in horror before looking towards the explosives which were slowly counting down. 

“You...you weren’t supposed to be here” she whispers weakly, closing her eyes and shaking her head. 

Jason knew what had to be done though, and with a supernatural speed he rushes towards the Joker, slamming his fist into the back of his head and knocking him out cold. He looks towards the opposing room where two muffled and hooded figures were thrashing about in their bonds.

They didn’t have time to save everyone, and he wasn’t going to waste his time saving them. He pulls Harleen to her feet, not giving her time to do any more other than to catch her breath. “Mom! Get those two!” he shouts, seeing the ominous clock counting down to the last seconds.

The blonde listens, trusting her son innately in the same way she trusted Bruce, so alike were the two of them.

She rushes into the room and smashes open the chairs, grabbing the two under her arms and pulling them up. “RUN!” 

Her single word was enough to goad the two into action, and she leads them out into the room and rushes towards the hole that she and Barbara had made in their scuffle. The window was right in front of them, and she knew it was their only escape. “Hold onto me!” she shouts, drawing out her grappling hook and pre aiming through the glass at the crane above them.

She fires, and the hook shoots out, just as the bomb goes off, and incinerates everything inside of it. She felt the heat upon her back, and it rushes her forward until the backdraft hits, shoving her and the other two out of the building at a horrifyingly fast pace.

Luckily, the grapple tightens and pulls them out in time, though it sends them sprawling through the cold night air. The two hostages held onto her for dear life, and the lack of solid footing for the moment only emphasizes this, pushing them onwards until they land in a heap on the concrete of the docks. 

She turns back to the now burning building, her eyes desperate as she gazes out for her son and daughter, trying to find them, and ignoring the pain she feels all over her body as she pulls herself to her feet. 

The two were safe, for the moment, and thus that allows her to turn her attention away from them and rush forward. “Robin!” she shouts out. “Azrael!”

She hadn’t seen back in the building, but Jason had rushed back and grabbed Barbara by her shoulder, pulling her along with him as he followed behind Harleen.

“Wait! Please! Save me!”

He didn’t stop for Deacon Blackfire. There wasn’t time. He simply regarded him for a moment out of the corner of his eye, the bomb moving down to it’s last second. ‘I can’t kill you, but nothing says I have to save you’ he thinks, seeing the bomb about to explode. He pushes Barbara forward and wraps his arms about her, covering her body with his own right as it’s going to go off. They were in the stair well, right in front of a wall.

“I love you Barbara”.

Those had been the last words he spoke before the explosion went off, sending the two slamming into the wall which in and of itself was sliding off of the building, the ease of the demolition being hastened by the shape that the building was in.

It slid outward, and Barbara felt her body jar itself against the debris, and the heat was licking all around them with their tendrils of fire. Jason prevented her from feeling the pain though, his own body taking the entire brunt of the blast.

They fall through the air, landing on the ground as Jason manages to turn himself at exactly the right moment to continue protecting Barbara. Rubble falls atop them, covering them, and for a time everything is dark, the light obscured by the debris atop them though flickers reach them through the cracks, coming from the fire.

All is quiet, the crackling of the flame the exception. 

“Robin! Azrael!”

The voice is muffled, but Barbara, nestled in Jason’s arms, can hear Harleen calling out for them. Slowly she comes back to the land of the sober minded, shaking out the fuzziness that had settled over her mind after the explosion.

“Jason…” she whispers, not getting anything back from the man. That worries her, and her heart rate only increases as she struggles against the rubble. “Jason..answer me”. Her voice now took on a desperate whimpering tone, and she hears Harleen call out again.

She hated her.

She hated her for besting her, for not making a choice. For not saving her. She hated her...but she needed her. “O..over here!” she calls out, slamming her back upwards against the rubble atop it multiple times. “Over here!”. She keeps calling out, knowing that her voice was muffled, but hoping against hope that the mixture of the movements and the sound would draw Harleen’s attention. 

It apparently worked as someone begins to pick at the rubble from above her, and feels it finally give way, whatever it was blocking her having been removed. She looks up, twisting in Jason’s arms to see Harleen’s cowled face looking down at her, though there were others. Uncle Vic, Aunt Dinah and Aunt Pam.

Harleen’s eyes widen as she sees Jason slowly coming too, having shielded her. He coughs under his helm, and Barbara seemingly forgets that she was now effectively captured. She turns and hugs the man tightly, crying as she was happy to see him alive. Harleen and the others were too, but Barbara was especially so.

Her joy was cut short however as vines wrap around her tightly, securing her arms to her sides and pulling her out of the small pit or rubble. She struggles like a wild animal, raving and ranting, returning to her hatred of Harleen and Bruce. 

“I’ll kill you! I will! I SWEAR IT!”

The vine carries her up into the air, suspending her where she wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else. Pamela and Dinah ignore her, not being able to look at the once little girl they adored. They still did, love never went away, but with everything that had happened?   
  
They weren’t sure what was going to happen with Barbara, nor were they sure of what SHOULD happen to Barbara. For now though, she needed to be kept off of the streets. Harleen avoided looking at her as well, and instead focused on Jason. The young man was slowly getting up, and she aided him as best as she could. 

“Uggghhh…”.

“Are you okay?”.

He looks towards his mother and nods, his gaze going back to the still struggling Barbara, who calms at his look. He’d saved her life after all, and there they were, her finally fully unmasked before him.

He gets back up and stands suddenly, looking over the damage and shaking his head. “We need to find Blackfire and the Joker”. He begins to move forward, shuffling all of his tumultuous emotions under the cover of the mission he now felt he had to undertake. Harleen did the same and advances into the rubble, part of her hoping that the both of them were dead.

As it turns out? She got half of her wish.

They found Deacon Blackfire impaled upon a bit of rebar, which was laying haphazardly against the wall. The way his arms were positioned, it almost looked as if he was crucified and Jason stops to take in the sight.

_ “A mockery” _ Dumas says in his mind.  _ “A mockery of our lord and saviour. Fix this...affront to God. This false prophet”. _

Jason felt oddly enough the same way, and he reaches down to pick up a piece of rock, chucking it at the man’s arm to knock it off of its perch while doing the same to the other one in a quickly alternating fashion. 

The dead cult leader’s arms hung limply by his side as blood dripped down from his wounds, his skeletal hands swinging in the breeze. ‘Who’s God’s prophet?’ he asks the dead man mentally. ‘You, lying dead on a rotting pier in Gotham, or me, standing all chewed up on that same rotting pier in Gotham?’

His mind goes back to Barbara, thinking about how all of this had come full circle. She was safe. That was all that mattered. 

‘It isn’t though’.

He tries to shake those thoughts away, pretending that things weren’t now utterly complicated by her arrival back. How she had thrown a wrench into all of his plans. He was ecstatic that she was alive. But…..what had she become?

‘And how is she alive?’ he ponders, trying to remain calm. He’d helped bury her himself, held her dead body in his arms. He would interrogate her later, when the safety of the cave allowed him too. ‘I need answers’.

Harleen was also scouring over the wreckage, looking for the Joker. She didn’t have to go far as his light tinkling laughter sounded out over the field of rubble. She gets to the source of that laughter and finds him, hidden under a charred desk.

He grins up at her, continuing to laugh. “Hehee...little...urk...little help here batsy?”

She doesn’t know why, but she leans down and quickly pushes the desk up off of the man, dodging back just in time to avoid the bullet that erupts from the muzzle of the pistol he was holding, the one that Huntress had thrown to her.

Somehow it must’ve made its way into his hands, and now he was trying to kill her with it. Acting quickly, she kicks it out of his hands, sending the weapon careening back into the remnants of the burning building. The others, hearing the shot, rush forward to assist but Harleen stops them by raising her hand, assuring them that she had it under control. It was clear that the man was dying.

‘Good’ she thought.

“Eh...that...that was my last gag huh?” he asks, coughing up blood. All up and down his body, big shards of glass were jutting out at odd angles, having made mincemeat of his body. One particularly big piece had sliced through the flesh of his back and pushed itself through his chest, severing his left ventricle. He was slowly bleeding out, his heart now working to pump blood that flowed directly through the wound in his chest and into the Gotham night air.

Harleen says nothing and simply moves to her knee, looking down at the foe she’d spent so many years fighting alongside her family. The madman who had killed time and time again. She swore and oath once, to do no harm.

Now she was questioning the thought process behind that oath. Had she done more harm than by not simply snapping the Joker’s neck all those years ago.

“We...we could’ve been good together” he says seriously, for the first time in years, turning to look at her and breaking that seriousness with a smile. “All the delicious mayhem we could’ve caused. Ohh it would’ve been delightful! You could’ve…..been so much more Harley...my Harley Quinn….”.

Blood was now seeping from his lips as his breathing becomes somewhat less steady, though his eyes remained fixed on the blood vigilante. “I’m everything without you” she whispers harshly, not really knowing why she was so angry at the implications the man was making. “I would’ve just been a toy for you, like all the others. Something to break and toss away eventually. But without you? I’m a wife, a mother, a doctor...I’m Batwoman”.

“I...made...you”.

“No...you didn’t” she says. “Part of me wants to say he made me”, she says while implying she was speaking about Bruce. “But that’s not it. I made me Joker, and he just brought out the best in that me that I made, and I did the same for him”.

“Nothing. You’d be nothing without me”.

He was ignoring her statement from before, seemingly going off on his own little world of delusion, undoubtedly imagining how things would be if he’d managed to make Harleen his own. She didn’t care. Not anymore.

She wouldn’t be his doctor any longer in a few moments anyway.

He turns to her, one last time, and seems to want to ask something. A favor.

“Just...one thing toots…”.

She narrows her eyes but remains quiet, allowing him to take her silence for acquiescence to her demand. “Just...one...kiss...hehehe…”.

She was appalled at the request, and especially from the man asking it. But, he was at death’s door and knocking harder and harder. She felt that she didn’t have a choice in the matter. Not in these circumstances.

“Just please...give me one kiss? Can you? Just...so...I can pretend...hehehe”.

The black clad vigilante begins to lean in, positioning her head over his own so that he can get one last close up glimpse of her, and her him. Slowly she lowers her lips close to his, her breath teasing against his own. He couldn’t move up to capture them between his own, thus satisfying his lust for power over the woman. 

He had to rely on her to follow through, and while it cheapened the ultimate victory he would’ve felt, it was a victory nonetheless.

He closes his eyes, expecting the feeling of her lips against his own any second, but when Harley gets even closer, she whispers one word.

“No”.

With that she backs up, watching as the Joker’s visage is twisted into one of shock at being denied this ultimate gesture, the culmination of his life’s work or at least a symbolic measure that he’d “won” before it moves to one of rage as Harleen backs up onto her feet and glares down at him.

“Go to hell”.

With her final words to him, Joker takes one last gasp and then lays back fully, the light going from his eyes as he dies. She felt...numb. Years upon years of fighting this maniac. Capturing him and putting him behind bars only to have him escape once more to kill, maim and cripple others.

She knew that if Bruce were here he most likely would have saved him. 

She couldn’t though. Not with all that had happened. ‘I didn’t kill him’ she soothes herself. ‘I didn’t kill him. And neither did Barbara. This...no...Joker killed himself’. She knew that her mind was going through all sorts of hoops to try and explain what had happened in such a way as to absolve her of any guilt.

That tactic didn’t work and she knew it wouldn’t so instead she does what she always did after an encounter with the Joker.

Her mind goes over the people he hurt, crafting an image behind each and every name, names and faces she’d ingrained within her mind. She saw them every time she heard his laugh, and now? She wouldn’t anymore. 

In a way? Barbara had gotten revenge for all of them. Justice. 

‘Maybe she is a better Batwoman than me’.

She pushes these thoughts away and moves back towards the group, Jason apparently having done the same thing. The two hostages had apparently taken off their hoods, and were now busily hugging each other, ensuring that the other was safe. Harleen’s eyes widen at the realization that Dick Grayson and Delia Grayson were before her.

They turn to Batwoman and smile wide, not releasing their hold on the other. “Thank you! Thank you so much! We thought she was going to kill us…” Dick says, glaring pointedly over at Barbara who rages back. “I will! Don’t worry! I’ll get to you eventually”.

“No...she won’t” Harleen soothes, turning back to the reformed former criminals. “Get out of here. Go home”.

She makes to turn to Ivy, wanting to discuss things with her when she’s interrupted by the two calling out once more. “What the hell? What do you mean? What about the cops? What about booking her? What about…”.

“She’s coming with us” Azrael says, stepping forward defensively, scaring the two into submission. Batwoman remains silent but nods in agreement, Vic gesturing for Ivy to bring the girl down, which the green skinned woman dutifully does. He grasps her, quickly handcuffing her in the patented no escape Sage hold, though Dinah was there beside her husband to keep a close watch. 

“BULLSHIT! SHE…”.

Harleen turns on Grayson, marching right up into his face, practically fuming. “You were given a second chance” she begins. “One you didn’t deserve. You’re going to remain silent about what happened here. You’re not going to tell anyone about Huntress. This isn’t up for debate”.

The man was frightened and Harleen is cowed slightly by that, his obvious fear mollifying her rage. “Go home. Don’t leave”.

Vic’s mustang was parked not too far down the dock, and that was now where the faceless conspiracy theorist was moving their prisoner. She needed to know what their next move was though, and for that she’d need to call Bruce.

Before she can however, Alfred interrupts on the comm link. “Batwoman!”

“Yes A?”

“We have an issue...a very serious one!”

“What is it?”   
  


“Batman has been captured...my God. Bane has Bruce!” 


	17. Chapter 17

**_Gotham City Lighthouse, East Coast_ **

Bruce felt himself lapsing in and out of consciousness, his very ability to think straight hindered by the pain he was in. He’d survived a heart attack and the poison from Shiva, but he wasn’t in any condition to continue on. His belt had been taken from him, and he had been effectively searched for all of the random tools he secreted about his person to escape from just these types of situations.

They were thorough. 

Very thorough. He’d come to expect that from Bane, whom he’d almost fought once before. His chest was still sore, and he feels a bit of pain at the sensation of burning, causing him to lean forward and crunch himself against the wall where he was contained.

“That looks painful amigo”.

Bruce works through the pain, looking up to see Bane standing there before him, two armed goons on either side of the hulking man. “Still you struggle” he goes on, raising a hand and sending the two away, sure he’d be able to handle him.

The man walks over towards a bowl of water resting atop a table and dips a cup, also near the bowl, inside of it. The water is slowly brought to Bruce’s still cowled face, and he is left to think of what to do. On one hand, he didn’t know if it was poisoned or not. He ran the odds and decided that if Bane was going through the trouble of keeping him here, then he wasn’t going to kill him. Not yet.

He groans again, feeling the lingering pain from his near pulmonary failure.

Slowly, as he gains the ability to move and work through the pain, he reaches out with his lips and begins to take a light drink. The cool water was like a calming balm to him, and he finds himself grateful to the criminal, if only for delivering a momentary bit of relief. 

He doesn’t say anything when he finishes, simply leaning back and returning to glaring at the luchador. Bane smiles under his mask, always appreciating defiance, especially when it came about through strength. “De nade”. His tone was sarcastic, mocking the man as he turns to replace the cup back upon the table.

“Why are you back in Gotham?”

Bruce’s voice was still gruff, though it was weaker.

“Why do you think?”

“Don’t play games with me…” Bruce retorts, causing Bane to laugh. “Ohh mi amigo, you are in no position to make demands of me. And this ciudad? Well, it’s mine to play games in now”. Bane turned cold at the memory of the loss he’d incurred upon first sending his army to this place, and he fights to not rip Batman from the wall and break him right there. It wasn’t time. Only when the others were there to be broken as well. 

To witness the death of their leader.

This reminder of his goals calms him down, and he turns back to resume conversation with the vigilante. “This isn’t the first time I came back” he reminds him, reaching across the grab a chair from the side of the room and placing it backwards before Bruce, sitting in it and resting his arms around the headrest.

The wooden chair creaks under his weight, but it holds, and he continues his interrogation. “You left. We...urrg...we were coming for you”.

“Si. Yes, you were coming for me, but that was not the reason I left Batman. I am not afraid of you” he explains and for once Bruce believes it. He wasn’t faking bravado. He truly had no fear. He could see it in his eyes which blinked out at him through the mask.

He had once seen the same look in his own eyes while looking into the mirror. Fearlessness. But he hadn’t seen that look in some time, and he knew why.

He was afraid now. After all, there was so much for him to lose now in comparison to those early days. “I left because the stage wasn’t set” he says, leaning back and taking a deep breath which came out as more like a sigh. “I didn’t feel it in the air. A certain...destino. Our fight? It had to be a certain way and the time was not right. You were busy with that maniaco at the time regardless. What was his nombre?”

Bruce doesn’t answer, knowing that the man already knew the name of the man he was referencing. Bane snaps his fingers, pretending that he had been mulling over the question and had only now just let it occur to him. “Ahh si, si...Professor Pyg. Tell me, did you ever catch him?”

“Not then”.

Bruce didn’t know why but he felt the need to answer honestly. It had taken years to catch Pyg. And through all that time? He racked up victims. All young women, culminating in the most recent attack upon Commissioner Montoya.

“Did you ever think of killing them?” Bane asks curiously, though for this he doesn’t receive an answer. Regardless he continues on. “Surely you’d see the meritos of such an approach? For one, you save vidas. Is that not your whole purpose? Your sacred mission? And another, more inteligente, rational approach? No enemy to come back to crush you”.

“Why am I here?”

The last thing he wanted was yet another debate on if he should just kill the villains he faced on a daily basis. He’d had it too many times. Family, friends and himself, every night when he went to bed and ruminated on what had been lost.

“Simply?” Bane asks before providing an answer. “To act as bait. I do not want to simply kill you for what you did to my soldados. My hermanos. No. Everyone involved must pay”.

“Your men are nothing but psychopaths who kill for money”.

At this Bane lunges forward, grasping his neck in his hand and squeezing tightly. “No se trata de dinero!” he seethes. “Honor! Survival. No nobler goal exists in the entire history of mankind”. Bruce begins to struggle for breath, and Bane relents, throwing his head back so that it impacts harshly against the wall, further injuring him.

He stands and gestures for his men, whom Bruce had thought to have left the room, rush in with a camera. “Are we going to be live?”

“Si Bane” one of the men says, setting up the tripod upon which he wanted to place the camera. “But our hold on the television station is tentative...the Titans are there. We can only hold for five minutes”.

Bane nods, apparently unbothered by this revelation. “I only need two”.

He moves back to Batman and grasps him tightly, pulling him upwards to face directly into the camera. “Hmm...something is missing…” Bane says before reaching out and slamming his fist into the man’s face, breaking his nose through the cowl and further rocking his mind, sending him into the middle ground between consciousness and unconsciousness as blood drips down his mask and onto his chin.

“Perdon my rough treatment” Bane says, sounding anything but sorry. “Appearances matter”.

The soldier behind the camera holds up his finger and nods that they were recording. “Tres...dos...uno”. The camera is rolling and Bane seamlessly launches into his monologue. “People of Gotham...you have long enjoyed the protection of vigilantes. I care not for this city, nd indeed...I want it muerto” he says ominously. “I will not waste any time. One last guerra. One last struggle. This is between me and the bats. Noone else. To the other heroes, satisfy yourselves by fighting my men. But as for me?”

He turns towards Batman and increases a hold on his neck, choking the life from him. “I hunt and fight only the most dangerous game”.

The final sight the footage captures is of Bane continuing to torture Bruce by taking a knife and slamming it into his bicep, causing the normally stoic man to scream out in pain. He writhes against his bonds, trying to keep from breaking fully, but it was clear that he was in pain.

The signal cuts out, replaced by a black screen with white letters upon it. 

It reads, “Bats...come and play”.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

Martha and Mary had been glued to the screen, as had Elise and the Amazonian honor guard, not knowing what to say or do. “Ohh god...dad!” Mary suddenly shouts, breaking the silence as she rushes up and makes to run into the cave. She’s stopped by Alfred who had taken up a vigil at the entrance to the living room to watch, expecting such a reaction.

Martha’s eyes were glued to the screen, unable to look away, and she grips the arms of the couch with a ferocious strength that causes the wood to crack beneath the fabric that covers it. Elise notices and she reaches out to her granddaughter’s shoulder.

“I’m going out there”.

Elise’s eyes, and indeed everyone else’s in the room, widen in shock. “No you are not young Miss Wayne” Alfred interjects, watching as Martha got up off of the couch and tried to exit the room. “Alfred...I have to. Nobody else is going to be able to!”

“Out of the question” he says, refusing to budge, though the young Amazonian princess was just as stubborn and obstinate. “Alfred, you have to let me go”.

“Martha, I’m telling you no as well” Elise says, rising and looking towards the Amazons. With a nod of her head they move up behind her, ensuring the young girl that she wasn’t going to to get away from them. “Nana, please…” she says, making one more appeal to the woman.

“I’m sorry Martha but...we need to find out what’s going on”.

“Martha that is seriously a bad idea!” Mary adds her two cents though she was always scared stiff about the situation her father was in. Nubia and Artemis were sympathetic, as were Petria and Lyria, but they had their orders as well and the four women were more than imposing, even while wearing jeans and sweaters, a sweater with a kitten on it in Artemis’ case.

“Nana mom is out there with everyone else looking for Huntress” she explains, still refusing to attach Barbara’s name to the woman and murderer she’d become. “I’m all that’s left….”.

Just then, Alfred’s phone rings, and he picks it up to hear Harleen on the other end of the line. “Miss Wayne?”

“Alfred” she says, her tone low and carrying her sadness with it. “Miss Wayne, I hate to sound unconcerned but we have a larger issue than…”.

“I know Alfred...I saw. I’m going out. But first I have to get to the cave….to drop something off and pick something up”.

“Pray tell what are you dropping off?” Alfred asks angrily, unhinged at seeing Bruce so helpless and hearing Harleen so defeated. “We got her Alfred”.

“Bloody hell!” he shouts. “WHO?”

“Barbara…”.

He goes quiet at that, and indeed a little limp, swaying on his aged legs and only managing to be caught by one of the Amazons rushing forward to steady him. “My word...is...is she…?”

“She’s okay Alfred but….we need to think and talk about this later just get the cell ready”.

“The cell?” he asks, scandalized. “Barbara Wayne will not be put in a c…”.

“It’s for her own good Al” Harleen explains, too exhausted to be emotional about anything at this point though her heart was beating at a million miles a minute. All she could focus on was the thought of Bruce in the hands of that monster. 

She was ending this.    
  
Tonight.

‘Even if I have to kill him’ she vows to herself on the other end of the phone, though this part went naturally unheard by Alfred. The cell was just what it sounded like, an iron cage meant to keep any villain or criminal unlucky enough to have to be brought back for intensive interrogation. It was seldom used, after all they had relatively open access to the GCPD, but it was still there.

“Make it comfortable Alfred. She’s going to be there a while”.

“Are you going to turn her into the police?” he asks. “Whatever she’s done…”.

“She killed all the prisoners at Arkham Asylum Al” the blonde says, swerving her motorcycle to avoid a police cruiser which zipped by her at an quick pace, apparently having to respond to some call in the city.

The entire family was waiting with baited breath as Al slumps a bit more, his face expressionless. Suddenly, it’s set in grim determination. “She is not going to prison”.

“Al…”.

“No. No” he says firmly. “I...no. Not Barbara. We can help her. Bring her back. YOU can Miss Wayne” he pleads, not wanting to lose his grandchild in all but blood, as all of the children were, yet again, especially not so soon after getting her back.

It was Harleen’s turn for silence now, and she doesn’t know what to say to the man that might convince him of something she wasn’t convinced of anymore either. ‘Bruce...puddin’...you’re so much stronger than me. Why is it always you that gets in predicaments and me that has to step into your shoes?’

“I’ll try Alfred…”.

“Promise you shall not send her away” he orders. “She isn’t like the rest. You cannot compare her and the Joker. She...she can be saved”.

“I swear Alfred”.

“Good...good” he says while breathing a deep sigh of relief, turning to the others and giving a quick but still misery spotted smile. “I shall make up the room”. He refused to call it a cage. “But what of Master Bruce?” he asks suddenly remembering the very important issue that they were still facing.

“I’m gonna get him Alfred. I promise. Batwoman out”.

With that, the line severs, leaving the others unsure of what exactly was happening but having no choice but to trust in Harleen to deliver a victory to Gotham as she and the others had done so many times before. “Alright well…...where’s Martha?” Elise begins, noticing her granddaughter’s absence. 

The Amazons themselves were the most shocked as the girl had been in their midst mere seconds ago, or so it seemed. They had been just as engrossed in the phone call as the rest of the family had been. Elise was rapidly moving into the hall, followed by Alfred, the warrior women and a crying Mary who didn’t know what to do now.

“MARTHA!” Elise shouts, rushing up the stairs to the second floor, already having a feeling of where the young girl would go. They rapidly advance to the display cases that line the wall, passing by the relatively uninteresting art pieces that Patrick Wayne had collected to the one display case that mattered.

The one holding Martha’s gifts from Hera.

They stop in front of it and Elise grasps the sides of the wooden cabinet tightly, shaking in fear as they look upon the shattered glass and empty interior. “Martha...no….”.

She rapidly turns to the Amazons, enraged that the girl managed to slip out of their sight and taking it out on them. “FIND HER!”

“It will be done my Queen” Nubia says, trying to soothe the old woman who just snaps back at her. “DON’T TELL ME AND JUST DO IT! FIND MARTHA AND BRING HER BACK HERE! NOW!”

**_Just Outside Wayne Manor_ **

She manages to jump the fence with Jason’s old dirtbike which had sat forgotten in the garage for years at this point. It had always been his and her little pet project, something they worked on after finding it at a yard sale for fifty bucks.

Money didn’t matter to them, but at the time it had been an amazing find! Many afternoons were spent looking at it, polishing it and painting it, going over all the parts and ensuring they were shiny and spotless.

It had been a piece of junk really, but, because she and her brother worked on it? It was like gold.

The frame struck the ground and buckled, wobbling over to convince the young girl that it was about to fall apart, but she is able to right it quickly enough, and take off even quicker down the road leading away from the manor. 

She knew where she needed to go, and she knew how to get there. ‘Bane was stupid’ she thinks. ‘Taking a video with a sign for where he was located right on the wall?’

She quickly realizes though that that was because Bane wanted them to know where to find them. He was looking for a confrontation after all. She fixes her eyes forward, wearing the goggles that Jason had left behind for when they went into the woods and got muddy, but forgoing the helmet. It was too small for her at this point anyways.

‘Great, another thing for them to be mad at me for’ she huffs petulantly, swerving out onto the abandoned streets. She pushes those thoughts away though, at least for the moment and focuses on what she had available to her. Her gauntlets were on her wrists, and the lasso was secured to her belt. ‘This’ll come in handy’. She’d trained for hours with the lasso, and she knew how to use it.

The Tiara was perched atop her head, surprisingly able to remain their and steady despite the wind rushing into her face. “Hera, give me strength”.

She whispers it into the wind, hoping that it would carry up to the goddesses’ ears while taking a shortcut through an alley and somehow managing to avoid getting hit by a bus at the last second. Aside from her divine weapons? She was just wearing a pair of jeans and a leather jacket that Jason had also left, surprisingly fitting her just fine. 

Her shirt though, that had been custom made a long time ago, and it was by mere chance that she was wearing it tonight.

Part of her smiles at the thought that the gods were watching, egging her on to accomplish what Diana never could, what she failed to live up to. She revs the engine of the bike, continuing onwards towards the lighthouse which she now saw in the distance. A pier led out to it, though there were a few police officers standing beside their cruisers there as well.    
  
She winced at the thought of rushing past them, knowing she was undoubtedly breaking numerous laws and city ordinances, but for her father? She’d do that.

She revs the engine and pops a wheelie, finally attracting the attention of the officers, obviously instructed to not let anyone near the pier, though now hearing the sound of a motorbike. 

She slams the front wheel on the hood and pushes herself forward to give the bike some more forward momentum, sending it onto the other side of the pier and then rocketing off towards the lighthouse. 

She resists the urge to shout back something, either and apology or something cool that she might use as a catchphrase but she can’t think of anything, and she knows that it would be lame to do so. She had something much more important to focus on now.

Saving her father.

As for her shirt? She remembered having it made, though it had caused a bit of a media buzz when she did, the t-shirt maker apparently having spilled the beans. It was impossible to keep her identity a secret, especially as the Amazons flooded out through the city and told of how Bruce Wayne’s daughter was their princess and the new Wonder Woman.

Luckily, nobody had put two and two together and extrapolated her family’s secret because of it. As far as they were concerned? Bruce and Harleen Wayne were just the busy parents of a girl who was going to be a super hero one day.

She comes closer and closer to the lighthouse, and she gets into the proper mood to deliver a beat down to the oversized luchador.

As for what was on her shirt?   
  
A stylized golden W.

Wonder Woman had taken to the streets of Gotham, just like her parents.

**_The Batcave_ **

The Mustang roars into the cave, almost sliding into the guard rail but Vic, being a master driver at this point, was able to stop it in time. The doors open and out steps Dinah first, waiting for the person who had been pushed in between her and Jason to exit.

“Jason…” the girl says. “What are you going to do?”

Azrael remains quiet, simply prodding Huntress out of the car. She wasn’t having it though, and she struggled every step of the way, but the knight is able to force her out. The sound of another vehicle entering the cave is heard and Batwoman slides in next to the car, stepping off of her bike and heading towards what they termed the armory, not even looking at Barbara at the moment.

She couldn’t handle the hatred in the woman’s eyes and what she couldn’t handle even more was the thought that it was a well deserved hatred. 

“Harleen! Harleen!”

Elise and Alfred were rushing down the stairs, a still crying Mary in tow. 

She doesn’t answer, feeling her heart drop into her stomach at the fear of yet more bad news. “Martha is gone”. At those words she knew her fear was justified. “What? What the hell do you mean gone?”

“She smashed open the case and took the gifts of Hera. She went after her father. I tried to keep her under guard but when we heard about Barbara ohh gods we’re so sorry”.

Her mother had begun to break down in tears, something that wounded her daughter to the core. She knew her mother was a strong woman and to see her like this? It hurt. She didn’t have time though, and it was up to Alfred and Mary to do that. 

  
She is wordless and rushes into the armory, moving down the lockers until she gets to the large upright ammo crate bearing the name of Wayne Enterprises. She opens it, quickly inputting the code that would unlock it while Canary comes up beside her. “What are you doing?”

The other blonde ignores her for the moment, and begins to unpack the contents of the box which looked like heavy pieces of armor. She turns to another box, opening that up just as quickly to reveal a steel exoskeleton. Without thought, she begins to strap the pieces of armor onto the suit.

“I’m going after Bane. I’m gonna get my baby girl, my husband and then all of us are going to put all this bullshit behind us”.

Dinah’s face is hardened in resolve.    
  
“I’m coming with you”.

“No you’re not”.

Dinah lets out a snort. “Like hell I’m not”. She steps forward and assists Harleen in getting the suit primed. “You’re my sister Harleen. I’m not letting you go out there alone”.

Harley remains focused on the task at hand, thankful for the assistance as it made it go faster. ‘The faster I get out there, the faster I can save them’. She straps on the chest piece and reaches back into the box containing the armor, retracting a lithium battery core. “I love you Dinah. I do, but I need you and Vic to stay here and watch my baby”.

“Mary has Elise…”.

“That’s not who I meant” Harleen corrects while inserting the rod into the back of the robotic looking armor now. She slams it in with her fist, probably not the best way to do it, but Black Canary wisely keeps silent, seeing how the woman’s hands were shaking. Harleen had always held up well under pressure, but now?

She was cracking.

“Katana and Ivy are protecting the last inmates of Arkham and the GCPD. The Titans and the Society are out there pushing what’s left of Bane’s forces back”. She was saying this to herself, trying to remain calm but failing to do so. How could she remain calm?

“I need you to stay here and keep Barbara safe….Jason and I are going to go out there”.

“Harleen…”.

“Dinah!” she snaps, turning to look at her, tears leaking through the cowl. “Please just do this for me? Please…”.

She turns back to her work and moves around the back of the armor, opening up the rear and stepping in, closing the steel suit around her body. It did make her look a bit bulkier than usual, but not too much, having apparently been designed for her. 

“Okay Harleen...we will”.

“Thank you”.

She walks out of the armory and into the main atrium, where Vic and Alfred were holding Barbara still. Elise was hugging her tightly, and for her part the girl tries to show affection back by nuzzling her. Mary hugs her legs, sobbing even more as the situation overtakes her. 

“Barbara...what happened to you…?” Elise asks while Vic and Alfred keep a firm but gentle hold on her. Jason and Harleen make eye contact, knowing that it was time for them to head out and save Batman.

Barbara notices this, and glares towards Harleen.

“Where are you going now hero? Huh?”

“To save your father and sister” she says simply, hoping that this could be the beginning of her being able to reach the girl. “Martha...she’s like you once were. Wants to prove herself. Be a hero”. Barbara stares back at her mother, not knowing what to say. “She always looked up to you. Wanted to be like you...and me. It all starts with your father and I”.

She reaches out to caress the girl’s cheek, surprisingly not being rebuffed as Barbara looks back at her. “I’m so sorry we messed you up Barbara. I’m...I’m just sorry”.

She turns away and rushes to her bike, Jason hot on her heels as he had already discussed with his uncle the necessity behind taking his car. “What do you mean my sister?” Barbara calls out, being gently hurried along by Vic. “Where’s Martha?! WHERE IS SHE?!”

“Come on Barbara please...don’t...shh...it’ll be okay” Elise says, opting instead to go make her something to eat, wanting Mary away from her sister for now, just until she was calmer. “Come on Babs. Just relax” Vic says, helping her along to the cell while Dinah trails behind. 

Alfred had indeed fixed it up, adding a very nice cot, numerous blankets and pillows and a random assortment of creature comforts that he thought she’d like. “Young Miss Wayne” Alfred chides, using a tone that instantly brings the girl back to being just a little girl caught with her hand in the cookie jar. 

“You will listen to your uncle and aunt until I return, do you understand?”

She looks past him, watching as Jason and Harleen leave the cave. ‘Martha and dad are in trouble’ she thinks. ‘It’s your fault’. She didn’t know why but...no. She knew why. Despite joining with the League of Assassins, despite rejecting their moral code and despite being angry beyond hell with them...she never would’ve hurt them. Not seriously. And she never would’ve let them die. 

_ “Come on Barbara” _

She hears his voice again…

_ “Do the right thing”. _

She calms down and lets the trio lead her to the cell, opening the door and stepping through. Vic takes a look at her, standing within the cell like a caged animal just trying to acclimate to its surroundings. “Barb…”.

He trails off, not having words to say. Not now. Instead he focuses on depositing her crossbow on a table within the evidence area, prepping it for when the Huntress would become the last villain to be categorized within the archives. The crossbow would serve as evidence.

Dinah looks in sympathetically and places her hand on the bars. “Can I get you anything sweetie?”

“Water...please”.

The blonde nods and smiles. “I’ll go ask Alfred for some water”. She doesn’t move for a minute, continuing to watch her niece. “You know...with everything that’s happened, and with how uncertain things are for the future I just want you to know that it’s worth it to have you back”.

  
She reaches her hand in, wanting some contact with the woman. Slowly Barbara reaches out with her hand to take Dinah’s within her own, holding her tight. She didn’t realize until then just how much she’d missed human contact of the gentle and loving variety.

“We love you Barbara. We always have and we always will. We never stopped loving you”.

The blonde goes teary eyed and lets go, abruptly turning so as to prevent the redhead from seeing them spill out across her cheeks. Vic meanwhile was still at the evidence table, studying her crossbow. He did that with anything he could get his hands on, especially when confronted with an uncomfortable situation.

She was alone now though, with only the conspiracy theorist off in the distance for company.    
  
She knew better though.

“I need to save them” she whispers, gripping the bars tightly. “I know I fucked up. I...I don’t know what happened. I barely really know myself anymore but….I do know I need to save them. I love them. Dad...please…”.

She lowers her head and breaths deeply, trying to straighten out the thoughts of her mind. All she could see was Bruce being tortured and Martha in trouble. She couldn’t shake these images which seem to imprint themselves deep in her soul.

“Please...I can’t….I...I have to make things right. I need your help”.

All goes quiet for a moment, and she thinks that she had imagined everything, including her father’s voice all those years ago. Was any of this real? Was she?

She hears a click sound as Vic begins to work the action of her crossbow, apparently being impressed by it. She couldn’t help but smile and be proud of herself. After all, Uncle Vic had a knack for gadgets and she’d designed that one herself. 

Another click is heard from the weapon, though it wasn’t the only sound. 

She looks downwards to see that the door to the cell was now open, the locking mechanism having been tampered with somehow as to release the springs. Vic hadn’t heard it because it had seemingly been timed to happen at the same time as the crossbow was pulled back.

_ “Go. Batman and Batwoman need Robin. Both of them”. _

She doesn’t say anything, knowing that her uncle might very well hear her as she slips from the cell and makes her way to his back. At any other time she knew he’d have heard her, but between his aging senses and her being trained to hone them a laser sharp point over the years, she manages it.

Sneaking up behind the man, she raises her fist, poising to hit him right in the back of the head where she knew he’d be knocked out. The impact is rough, quick, and neat, all things that she’d learned from Ra’s.

What it wasn’t however, was lethal, and the faceless conspiracy theorist falls to the ground unconscious, the crossbow still in his hand. “I’m sorry” she says to the man, reaching down to pluck her signature weapon from his hands and the bolts that he’d placed within the pocket of his trenchcoat. She loads on of the steel bolts into the sling mechanism, priming the weapon while looking towards the exit of the bat cave.

She knew what she had to do, and she was going to do it.

_ “Thata’ girl” _

**_Gotham Eastern Subway Line_ **

“Why are we down here Slade?”

Shiva was growing more and more restless, especially as the tunnels seemed to go on forever, stretching into the dark underbelly of Gotham and into infinity.

“There’s an old service tunnel that was boarded up when the subway was built” he explains, moving off to the side of the abandoned tracks and sending a few rats scurrying away. “They said that it was unstable, but I believe the workers found something. A way to the Lazarus pit”.

“And what makes you believe that?”

The mercenary stops and turns to appraise the martial arts master, though his expression couldn’t be read through the mask he wore. “A hunch”.

He turns and ushers the group on, uncaring of the war raging above them. It wasn’t their fight anymore after all.

“A hunch father?”

The voice called out from the darkness, stopping everyone who watches as Ravager steps out, her sword already drawn. She had been on her own, trying to piece together the rapidly evolving situation within the city, and not finding a way to turn it to her advantage.    
  
Barbara was gone...and she had learned from a League member she saw in passing that Ra’s was dead and her father now stood in his place.

Without even informing her.

“Ahh..Rose. Glad you found us”.

Her eyes narrow, letting on that she knew he was anything but glad. “Are you?”

“Of course I am” Deathstroke says, trying to just move on and get to the pit. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Rose doesn’t even respond to that, knowing that it wasn’t worth her time. Not yet, not now. She sighs and replaces her sword in the scabbard, deciding to play along with her father until she could find a way to turn things to her advantage. “You’re looking for a Lazarus Pit?”

“I am”.

“And are you going to keep it all to yourself?” she further accuses as the group begins to move forward again, continuing their trek through the dark tunnels. “No. I already offered Shiva a dip but she turned it down. So, looks like you’ll be my second in command from now on”.

She was his second choice, once again, and that stung. It stung about as much as all of the other hatred her father had poured out on her over the years. She was used to it. Her feelings towards the man were unimportant at the moment though. Especially with the Lazarus Pit in play.

‘Barbara’ she thinks to herself, falling back into the line of assassins behind her father, making him think that she would act as just another of his lackeys as she had done for Ra’s, unaware of the gears turing in her mind. ‘I’ll find you, and I’ll seize the Lazarus Pit for us!’ she promises the absent woman, feeling joy for the first time in a very long time.

Now was her chance to really prove to the woman how much she meant to her. How much she loved her.

She wouldn’ waste it.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just want to thank the Fan01 for pointing out how rushed Barbara's change of heart was in the last chapter. I wanted to inevitably do this to showcase an internal war going on inside that she isn't even aware of really, so I hope this is interesting.

**_Moments Ago, ??????_ **

She awoke in a mist though for some reason it felt like home. Barbara Gordon-Wayne felt at ease in this mist, almost as if she’d been here her whole life. She couldn’t understand how that was of course. She’d never “been” here specifically, and she didn’t even know where “here” was, or if that was an accurate description.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t try to make sense of it” a voice calls through the mist, shocking her and causing her to turn to where the source of said voice seemed to be. “Who are you?” she shouts back warily.

A figure, hidden by the mist, moves forward, slowly revealing themselves to her, and in a moment they become as instantly familiar as this place was, though she knew exactly who it was. James Gordon, still wearing his brown overcoat and glasses, smiles at his daughter. “Hey Barbara”.

She doesn’t waste a second and rushes towards the man, not even questioning how it was he came to be here. She just wraps her arms around him, and the man does the same. “Daddy…”. She was crying, and James felt it prick at his heart. “Shh...it’s okay sweetie. I’m here. I’m here”.

She pulls back reluctantly to get a better look at him, but her hands remain on his shoulders, realizing that she could feel him. He was physical matter. Real.

“I...you were there”.

He nods, understanding innately what she was talking about. “Yes I was, and at almost every other point in your life though I stepped out when you and Jason..well…”. He blushes a bit, pushing the glasses back up on his nose with his pointer finger as he blushes. Barbara was sporting an equally embarrassed expression, knowing that having “the talk” with Bruce and Harleen was bad enough.

‘Really don’t need to go over it all again’.

“Are...are you a ghost?”

“Already told you what I was Barb” he chuckles. “Deadman”. For a second he flashes back into the red suit and purely white eyes, his skin losing all color and his hair becoming dull and lifeless. The change was over instantly though, and he reverts back to his living form. “I knew it was. I knew it. I mean...I tried to block out..say it wasn’t real but…”.

“I know honey” he winks. “I know. I’ve been with you every step of the way”.

That thought was comforting, and for a moment she doesn’t know what to say, instead opting to look around at her surroundings. “Where are we?”

“Your soul” he says simply, shocking her. “It’s one of the only ways I can really have a one on one, father daughter talk with you. It’s called a soul snare...eh, confusing thing. You’re not in any trouble. Still alive an all. Think about it this way...it’s like...taking a break and having a conference call only you and me can hear”.

“Ohh...how…”.

“Is that really what you want to talk about?” he asks. “The ins and outs of how I do what I do?”

“No…”.

“Good because to be honest? I can’t explain half of it myself. You’d be shocked at the things I can do, but I’m still limited because of the whole line between life and death kind of thing. I can cross it from time to time but in all honesty? I still have to follow Rama Kushna’s rules”.

“That’s a Hindu god”.

“Uhhm...long story short he gave me my powers after your mother’s assassins killed me. I can possess people and I’ve done a good amount of police work that way. You’d be surprised how many times I hopped into Harvey Bullock’s body to do some detective work when he was...wanting”.

She smiles, laughing at her father’s jokes, the first one she’d heard in a long time. His face turns serious right after though, and he reaches out to place a hand on her shoulder. “Barbara...again, we need to talk”.

“No...stop…”.

“You can’t do things the way you are” he goes on, ignoring the rage building up within the girl. She slaps his hand away, seething. “You don’t understand!”

He was completely unbothered by her anger, and simply continues on. “I do though. Like I said, I’ve been with you. I go off from time to time to help out with small things but whenever you strapped on the Robin suit? I was there...and when you became Ra’s puppet….”.

“Don’t” she warns.

“You’re going to have to have this conversation with multiple people someday Barb” he chides. “You might as well do it with me here where you’re safe”.

“I lost you…” she whimpers. 

“I know. I lost you too” he says sympathetically. “And I lost your mother, and James and...so much more” he says before smiling. “But I don’t think you ever really looked at what you gained. After all, you had a best friend to help you out through it after I was first killed didn’t you? Jason was there. You were never alone”.

She nods, knowing that there was no way she could fight that logic. “And then you had Bruce and Harleen. Tell me, do you really feel that they were any less of a mother and father to you than your mother and I? Well, before things took a turn for the worst”.

She takes a deep breath, collecting herself for what she wanted to say. “It was all a facade dad. They didn’t see me as their daughter, or Jason as their son. We were just weapons to them. Soldiers to be trained and molded and they made us weak. How many lives would’ve been saved if they’d just done the right thing all those years ago? How many of me could they have prevented by killing the Joker? How many orphans did they make through him?”

James looks down, unsure of what to say to that, and impulsively his hand reaches for his cigarettes in his jacket pocket, finding nothing. He laughs and shakes his head. “Twelve years later...even now. Don’t ever pick up smoking Barb”.

The redheaded woman was in no mood for joking though, and she advances forward on the man angrily, staring deep into his eyes. “Answer the fucking question! How many?!”

James remains calm, though a quiet anger burns behind his eyes. “Don’t curse at me, in fact, don’t curse at all potty mouth. You get that from me though so I can’t be too angry. As to how many orphans the Joker made? Forty three is the answer. But the Joker did that. Wanna know how many orphans Batman and Batwoman made? Minus two”.

He holds his hand out over the mist, causing it to coalesce into a picture, one that takes a few seconds to become completely clear, playing before her like a movie. It showed her on a go kart at the fair, and Bruce was beside her, helping her pilot it.

She was laughing and giggling happily, having an amazing time.

“Oops!”

A rival bumper call careened into their front, sending them sprawling back a bit though they were safe due to the rubber coating along the outside. Harleen and Jason were in the other car, the both of them smiling like the cat that ate the canary.

“Did we do that?”

Bruce smiles over at Barbara and winks. “Let’s get them!”

The memory fades away and is replaced by another one, of Barbara breathing deeply and trying to perfect the obstacle course inside of the cave. “Take your time Barbara. You can do this. I know you can”.

She listens to the man’s words and nods, jumping up and catching the steel bar, throwing her legs forward and trying to swing out to the next which hung ten feet in the air above the safety mats. She flings her body outwards and stretches her hands out, trying to grasp it.

She fails, and instantly falls back to the ground due to gravity, impacting harshly against it. She feels her tail bone hit particularly hard, not even the thick mat preventing her from the pain that follows.

Bruce is instantly next to her, arm around her shoulder as he smiles. “You okay?”

“Yeah…”.

“That was good! Really good!”

  
She looks up at him confused and angry. “No it wasn’t”. She stands up and paces, rubbing her back as she does, glaring angrily up at the pole that had eluded her. “I failed! Utterly screwed up. If I had been in the field, I’d be dead right now”.

Bruce was nowhere near as concerned. Instead he just shrugs. “But we’re not in the field. It’s okay Barbara. I’m proud of you”.

“Why? Again. I screwed up?!”

She didn’t understand why he wasn’t being nearly as hard on her as she was being on herself. In her mind? She was dedicated to being just as good as Harleen and Bruce, wanting to be exactly like them. Bruce reaches out, stopping her in her tracks while looking at her. “I’m proud of you because you keep trying” he explains. “You haven’t quit yet. And it’s the eight time you’ve fallen today”.

“I can’t do it Bruce” she says, a sense of defeat and panic welling up within her. 

He brushes her concerns away. “Yes you can. Barbara...why do we fall?”

“Because...I don’t know! Stop asking me questions you know I can’t answer” she whines. “I hate when you get all mystical like that”.

Bruce smiles and agrees with her nonverbally, deciding to make it easy and just tell her what he meant. “It’s so we can get back up”. She hears his words and looks back at him, not knowing what to say. “Jason is so much better than me at this”.

“He’s good, I’ll admit” Bruce says. “But in the end, you have a lot more fire and passion than him. I’m not quite so sure if he’d failed this many times he’d keep going but...here you are still”.

“You haven’t given up on me?” she asks, figuring that the man would be at his wits end with all the problems and issues she had. He just smiles and shakes his head. “Never. Now, are you going to get up and try again?”

She looks back towards the bar and her expression becomes one of grim determination. She turns back to Bruce and nods, sending him towards the side of the course where the observation booth was. “Good. Begin again”.

The mist rolls back in, obscuring the view as it works on forming yet another vision. “You made it on that next one” Jim interjects, with Barbara standing their trying to suppress her emotions. “Have any moments like that with Ra’s?”

Her mind echoes with the beatings, slaps and insults hurled at her when she failed the few times she did.   
  


_“WORTHLESS!”_

_“YOU’LL NEVER LEAD!”_

_“WHY DID I SPARE YOUR LIFE IF YOU CANNOT EVEN PARRY A BLOW?”_

She looks away and shakes her head. “No…”.

“He was wrong you know” Jim explains. “Ra’s. You were always worthy Barbara, but the League of Assassins? That was much lower than you. No. You were worthy of another calling”. At his words a large bat symbol lights up the...air? Or whatever it was, above them, and Barbara feels as if she was caught in its light.

It made her feel small.

Unworthy. 

The mist clears again, exposing yet another view of her a few years older, sitting at the kitchen table with Mary and Martha in their booster seats. The baby girls were eagerly eating some cheerios, and Barbara was there beside them, an ever vigilant watchdog, to ensure they were safe.

Harleen wasn’t far though, working on baking some brownies for after dinner.

“Mom?” Barbara asks.

“Yes puddin’ pop?”

The younger Barbara blushes, secretly hating that nickname that Harleen used invariably on all of the children at one time or another. Still, it wasn’t going to stop, and she had a question to ask. “When did you know you loved dad?”

The question strikes the blonde woman off guard, and she turns and smiles, reminiscing as she hadn’t in a while, being much too busy with Arkham and the manor. “Hmm...very quickly. Why do you ask sweetie?”

“Just curious”.

Harleen knew that the girl was lying and something else was on her mind. Jason may be able to occasionally get something past her, but Barbara? She was an open book. ‘Shouldn’t tease her about it though. I have a feeling I know what it is’.

“Well sweetie...it’s this weird feeling when you look at someone and just feel like they’re a part of you. Maybe sometimes a better part”. She stops to hand over the chocolate covered spoon to the little girl who eyes it greedily before remembering that Bruce didn’t want her to have too much sugar. She looks up warily at Harleen who just winks. “I wont tell your dad, and these two little bat babes aren’t gonna say anything”.

She takes her seat at the table, grabbing Martha’s sippy cup just before it fell off of the end table before her high chair. “Ooops...close one”. She places it back on and returns to Barbara’s question. “Sometimes love happens when you don’t even realize it. You just wake up one day and poof, you realize you love someone”.

Barbara was taking in her words, trusting her adoptive mother implicitly. “Your father and I...well, I can only describe it as being like music. Where they’re the tune to your lyrics or something like that. Yin and yang kinda stuff I guess. My point is, they make you feel all warm and gooey inside”. She stops to reach across the table and poke Barbara’s mid section, making her giggle before the redhead stops, feeling herself to be too grown up for that.

“Why, are you in love?”

Barbara’s eyes go wide and she shakes her head no, the blush on her face giving away the lie. “No! Like I said just curious!”.

Harleen wasn’t buying it, but she presses no further, reaching out and placing her hand atop her daughter’s. “Good. Not gonna say you’re too young for love buuut….I just want you to know that there is never a rush. Love comes naturally. It would wait an eternity for you Barbara. And the guy...or well, girl…”.

“Moooom” she says, rolling her eyes. “I...no...not…”.

“It’s fine!” Harleen says, holding her hand up to halt her protest. “Just...putting it out there that I don’t care if I’m going to have a daughter in law one day. But regardless, I think the guy who is good enough to earn your love? He’s gonna be one of the luckiest men to ever live, and he better treat you right”.

“Like dad treats you?”

Harleen nods. “Exactly. Like the queen to his king. Partners in crime. Best friends and lovers all in one. Trust me, it’s better to get those two things together because if you don’t then jealousy becomes an issue and it’s a whole big thing”.

Barbara laughs at that and nods. “I’ll try and keep that in mind”.

“Good. And when it does come time to...well, talk about boys and how you know and what not and when you finally bring one home, mama will be sure to tell you if he gets the boot or not. And if not me? Your dad. And if not him…”.

“Uncle Vic, Uncle Harvey, Aunt Dinah, Aunt Pam..all the way down the line I know” Barbara laughs again, having heard this way too many times at this point. “Good. Just so you understand how many people have your back”.

She moves back to the stove, just giving it a quick lookover while Barbara mulls over her words. “Mom?”

“Yeah sweetie?”

“Thanks for talking to me” she says. “It just...well...I feel better when I do”.

Harleen smiles wide at that and turns back to her redheaded daughter. “Well, thank god my degree can come in handy sometimes”. Her face turns serious, though it maintains a warm smile. “Sweetie, I’m your mother. You can come to me with anything, anytime. I’m here for you”.

The memory fades out and James pokes Barbara in the side. “Do those look like people who don’t love you? Who don’t think the world of you? Who saw you just as a soldier?”

She wasn’t ready to let go of her anger. Not yet.

“They let me die”.

“No Barbara. We have to be fair…” he says, not liking the fact that he had to say this part. “You went off on your own when your grandmother and Alfred told you to stay behind. You dragged Jason along too. He could’ve died”.

“I...I would’ve protected him. I did…”.

“You can’t always control what happens Barb” he explains. “I was a cop. I can tell you from experience that things go wrong, spiral out of our control. We can’t always protect the ones we love. The Waynes learned that the hard way”.

“It sure as hell didn’t affect them much!” she snaps. “Me dying? They moved right on. Nothing changed. They just kept doing the same bullshit that they did before. How the hell does that square with the idea of me being more than disposable?”

“Do you really think they didn’t care Barbara?”

She just glares back at him, breathing deeply and trying to contain her rage. “Did you really believe Ra’s when he told you that?”

“I didn’t have a reason not to believe him” she says. “I saw them all. Just going on with their lives like nothing happened. Like...like I wasn’t gone”. She began to cry again, and it hurt to see the number that had been done on her fragile psyche. 

“Barbara...people have to move on. You did after I died”.

“That’s different”. She looks away though he forces her to look back. “It’s not. You had a life and you were happy, just like I wanted to. But maybe part of you didn’t, and that’s why we’re here. Harleen and Bruce had to stuff their pain away. They had other kids and a whole damn city to look after. But they never stopped loving you and they never got over it”.

  
A final memory appears through the mist, though it wasn’t her memory. She knew that instinctively. The figures within soon become clearer to her, and she sees Harleen on a bed, nestled into Bruce’s arms. She was sobbing, her hand holding a picture as he tried to console his wife, rocking her back and forth.

“I WANT TO FUCKING KILL HIM!” she shouts out, shocking the redhead who’d never seen her mother in such a state, staring enraged out into the darkness as Bruce holds her, shaking in rage himself. “HE TOOK HER FROM US! HE DESERVES TO DIE BRUCE!”

“We can’t Harleen…”.

She hears the rage in the man’s voice, though it wasn’t directed at the woman in his arms. No. It was towards Deacon Blackfire. She didn’t know how she knew it, she just did. Harleen just cries, looking down at the picture and stroking her thumb over the girl’s face. A tear falls onto it from above, though it wasn’t from the blonde.

It was from Bruce.

The picture was of Barbara sitting atop Bruce’s shoulders, a very pregnant Harleen to the side with her arm around Jason. It was taken on the board walk in Seaside Heights when they’d taken a day trip as it wasn’t so far from Gotham.

“She looked so happy…”.

“Why...why couldn’t I help her?” Harleen chokes out, the man instantly trying to stop that thought. Harleen just tearfully stammers, preventing his efforts. “I...I...I saw...I saw it. I had to have. I must’ve ignored it. Her pain...why couldn’t I help her? Why co...why….”.

“This isn’t your fault Harleen”.

Bruce closes his eyes and then opens them, trying to stay calm. “It’s mine. I thought...I thought that by making her like me that she’d okay. She’d be safe and able but., I’ve never been so wrong. I killed her”.

“No! No! Don’t say that! You gave her the tools...you helped her….you were such a good father. This...this is their fault”. The fire returned to her eyes instantly, and Barbara stares into them, feeling the hatred for the villains who’d caused this.

“I want them dead Bruce...all of them”.

“We can’t Harleen”.

“WHY NOT?” she screeches. “They don’t think twice about killing. They didn’t think twice about taking our daughter away from us? Why not? Just…”.

He grasps her cheeks and looks deeply into her eyes, almost willing her through his tear filled gaze to heed his words. “Barbara died for something greater than herself. Barbara believed” he says, stressing that word. “In what we stood for. I won’t let her sacrifice mean nothing. I won’t let those scum win by making us break. I won’t let their blood tarnish Barbara’s memory. She died...a hero. Our daughter”.

Harleen knew the man was right, and she is calmed by his words though nothing would stop the ache in her heart, ever she would guess. She instead buries her face in Bruce’s chest, continuing to cry.

“They took our baby…”

The vision once again fades out, and it was clear that this is what she had to see. Barbara turns away, crossing her arms under her chest and refusing to see what was right in front of her. Her hatred for the bats had propelled her along for so long. Ra’s had promised her such grand things and filled her head with lurid notions, things that she knew deep down, were untrue.

‘Why did I believe them?’

“You were scared and alone Barbara” James interjects, apparently able to hear her thoughts as well. “Nobody blames you. But...you’ve done a lot of pretty bad things”.

“I did what needed to be done” she snaps back.

James offers no commentary on that and just continues to watch his daughter’s back. Slowly, sensing his lack of an answer or indeed a desire to answer, she turns, uncertainty playing about on her face. “You...you think I did the right thing right? Gotham is broken dad. This shitty city...all these madmen…”.

“Who are you trying to convince Barbara?” he asks. “Me or yourself?”.

He had more to say though, and continues on with it. “Maybe pure evil scum like Pyg or the Joker deserved to die. Maybe, but I have to ask who are you to hand out that punishment? Who are you to decide?”

“I’m better than them’’.

“The be better!” he urges, his voice overtaken by a sudden passion. “You were a symbol of hope Barbara. Just like the rest of them. Proof that it didn’t need to be dark and gloomy, that we could be better. As a people, as a city, hell maybe even as a world. Sure, they deserve to die...if that’s what you want me to tell you, I will. I’ll tell you the god damned truth. I want to put a bullet between their eyes and end their evil. I do”.

His eyes suddenly soften and he shakes his head. “But it won’t change anything. In fact? It just makes me like them”.

“No!” she protests, though it’s much weaker than her initial disagreements. “They kill for the sake of it. They’re fucking evil. But me? I killed because it was the right thing to do”.

“But where does it end Barbara? And was it? Was it the right thing to do? After all, why did you really kill them? What was on your mind while you did it?” he ask pointedly, already knowing the answer. Barbara goes back, and her mind fixates on the image of her tearing into Pyg, ripping out his tongue and hearing him squeal.

“Your mind wasn’t on justice. It wasn’t on right or wrong. It was about proving a point. About making yourself seem better to Batman and Batwoman. There’s no escaping that fact Barbara” he says firmly. 

The redhead was silent, the blood and scent of it from Arkham coming back to her. It was like she was viewing herself through another lens, an out of body experience. This wasn’t like a video as the others had been. This was a still. It pulled back her mask as well, showing the sadistic smile she’d had on her face while she committed the murders.

Superimposed behind her was the Joker, his face marked by an equally sadistic and gleeful expression. His laugh echoes out hauntingly, his ghost seemingly hanging over Barbara as Jim shakes his head. “I don’t see a Batwoman there. In fact….I see someone closer to the Joker than Batwoman”.

Barbara’s eyes were fixed on the image, and she falls to her knees, unable to take it as she looks down at her hands, now sporting the blood she’d spilled upon her digits. “No...no…”.

James places his hand upon her back. “I know it’s hard to admit Barbara...but you made a mistake”.

“What..what have I done?”

“It’s not too late to turn back” he urges her on. “To do the right thing. To become worthy of that symbol once again. Barbara...listen to me. Your sister, your father? They’re out there, and they’re in danger. They need Robin. They need you”.

“I can’t”.

“You can”. 

She was shocked at how she suddenly hears Bruce’s voice, and turns to see that her father had morphed into the man who smiles back down at her before returning to his original form. “He believes in you. He still does. Doesn’t that count for anything in your book?”

“What happens to me after?” she asks worriedly.

“Does that matter right now?” he counters. “Do heroes worry about what happens after they save the day? No. They go and save the day and they take whatever comes their way...heh, rhymed. Regardless, you need help Barb. You’re sick. But your family is uniquely capable of handling that...do you trust them?”

Barbara thinks back on all of the memories she had just seen, and especially the one with her mother in the kitchen. 

“Yes”.

“Do you love them?”

“Yes”.

“Then you gotta get back out there and do what’s right Barb” he says, content that his little girl was on the right path once again. “What do I tell them? Do I tell them about this?”

“Ahh...well, technically? You’re not going to remember this” he admits.

“What?”  
  


She moves to her feet in a hurry, unsure of the man’s meaning. “What are you talking about? You can help us...you can…”.

“Shhh...I didn’t say I wasn’t going to help you Barb. Of course I am, but, how do I explain this?” he asks, bringing his hand up to his mouth. “I’m having this conversation with your soul sweetie...not your mind. The soul speaks much more honestly than the mind”.

Barbara was taken aback by this, but it made as much sense as being able to talk to her father after he was made into the avatar of a Hindu god. “Okay...so how do I know if I’ll actually do the right thing then?”

“You don’t have to think something to have it inside of you Barbara” he chides gently. “The soul does a lot of the thinking for us, thinking the brain doesn’t even think about thinking about...that’s a mouth full. Regardless, I needed you to really understand me, so? I put our two souls together for now”.

James shakes a bit and falls to his knees, indeed the entire area shaking as if it was hit by an Earthquake. Barbara rushes forward, capturing him in her arms and assisting him back to his feet. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine” he says, reverting to his deathly look and red suit. He smiles at her softly. “Issue is? I can’t stay inside someone for long. Living flesh tends to not like dead things poking around inside too much. But...it was worth it”.

The shaking continues, showing him that he was soon going to be evicted from Barbara’s body. “Sweetie...I’m so proud of you. I don’t know how this is going to end, but I just know that you’re going to do great things again”.

She sniffles and smiles, not believing in herself nearly as much as her father did but still wanting to try. “I think I will. I’m a Gordon after all”.

“A Gordon-Wayne Barb. Never forget that”.

He leans in and pecks her cheek, hugging her tight as his body becomes nothing more than mist, slowly soaking back into their surroundings. “I love you Barb”.

“I love you too dad”.

And with that, the soul snare is broken.

**_The Present, Gotham City_ **

It hadn’t been hard for her to steal a motorbike, though she already felt guilty about it as she rocketed through the streets on the vehicle that most suited her. She didn’t know why but...she felt at peace, like some weight had been lifted.

Her hatred was gone, and now, in its place, was only an overriding worry for the ones she loved. She looked back on what she did with disgust, and vowed that she would do whatever they asked of her to make it right, even if it meant turning herself in.

But right now?  
  


They needed her on the battlefield. 

She headed towards the Gotham lighthouse, knowing that Martha would’ve made her way there just as well as any of the others. Jason and Harleen were undoubtedly on their way if they weren’t already there. 

They didn’t know what they were walking into.

If Ra’s Al Ghul considered Bane worthy of bringing to Gotham then he certainly wasn’t good news, and that was ASIDE from what she already knew bout the man from the files on the Batcomputer. 

‘You brought them here asshole! Smooth Barbara. Real smooth. Feel like a hero yet?’

_“Stop getting on your own ass...butt! And do what needs to be done. No use crying over spilled milk”._

‘Yes dad’ she thinks, revving the engine and moving off, not even realizing how much she and Martha now had in common. ‘Time to be part of the family again’.

**_Gotham City Lighthouse_ **

The guard was holding his kalashnikov tight to his chest, sweeping his head this way and that to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. He didn’t even see the most out of the ordinary thing jump out from behind him, ready to attack.

Martha slams her foot into the back of his kneecap, sending the man to the ground with a grunt of pain. Rapidly, she moves up behind him, her arm going around his throat to keep his head steady while putting him in a sleeper hold. The man tried to claw at her arms, not even thinking of reaching for his rifle.

Not that the girl would let him have the chance too.

  
Slowly his struggling stops, the man rapidly loosing consciousness and falling to the ground as soon as Martha was sure he was down for the count. “Night night” she says snidely, reaching down for his rifle and crushing it between her hands, using her bestowed demigoddess’ powers to do so.

She walks forward, peeping around the corner of the outbuilding to see a few guards standing by the entrance. She looks around with a grimace, realizing that there was no way past them. 

“Por que no lo mata?” one of them asks, obviously talking about her father.

“Quiere hacer un punto”.

“Si, que sangran todos los murcielagos”.

This draws the laughter of the other two, all of them holding assault rifles as well. Martha draws her lasso, and straightens it out, whipping it against the wind and watching as the golden hues light up along its length. “Hera give me strength” she repeats her mantra, stepping out into the light and exposing herself to the goons for the first time.

“Hola mi amigos” she shouts out, using her very rudimentary Spanish. 

  
They all draw a bead on her instantly, confused until they see that she’s just a young girl. They begin to laugh, mocking her and the threat she posed, completely unaware of what she was capable of.

“What do you want ninita?” one asks. “A cookie?”

The others laugh once again, apparently finding the question to be hilarious. Martha was in no laughing mood though, and simply draws the lasso closer, trying to harness the intimidation factor her father was so famous for.

“I’m only going to give you and Bane one chance” she warns. “Return Batman and turn yourselves in. None of you need to get hurt”.

One of them places their hand over their heart and gasps, throwing his hands up in mock surrender. “Ay carambe! I am so afraid of the little girl! AHAHAAHAHA!”

The leader was tiring of the games and makes to dismiss the girl. “Go home senorita. This is not a game. This is guerra. You shouldn’t be here”.

“Are you turning down my very generous offer?” she asks with a glare, being partly happy at this outcome. After all, it would give her a chance to see if she was as good at combat as she was at training.

The men cock their rifles, turning them on the girl. “Final warning...leave. Ahora”.

Martha shrugs and whips the lasso out to the side. “Don’t say I didn’t offer a way out”. She whips the lasso of truth outwards, wrapping it about the butt of the lead man’s rifle and his arm itself. He looks down at the glowing rope in confusion before he is yanked forward by the girl’s impressive strength. Her fist was already up, ready to slam into his face which she did with just enough force to break his nose instantly. 

He was knocked out, and she throws his body back towards the second nearest man who was busily trying to get a bead on her that would avoid hitting his comrade in arms. He was too slow though, and said comrades’ body slams into him, slamming him back into a stack of crates which shatter into thousands of splinters upon impact.

The final man however, he had enough time to aim and fire, and he lets loose, sending a stream of bullets right towards the girl. Martha lifts her gauntlet clad wrists which were enchanted by Hera herself to attract and then repel the projectile harmlessly. She keeps her fists up while rushing towards the man who helplessly continues to fire, hoping that at least one round would land. 

He had no such luck and he stops, dropping his rifle right as she is about to reach him in a vain attempt to go for his knife. He doesn’t make it, as Martha punches him directly in the gut, knocking all of the air out of him. 

He falls over and lands on his knees, gasping for breath. Martha finishes him off with a kick to the side of the head, sending him sprawling onto the ground where he lays. Martha was now feeling the adrenaline coursing through her veins, and she looks at her arms, realizing just how much damage she was able to do, and so quickly. 

“Wow….”.

She quickly brings her mind back on task and looks towards the entrance to the lighthouse, rushing forward and kicking it open, breaking the old rusty hinges and sending the steel door flying back into the lighthouse’s confines. 

She knew that she was strong, so this didn’t exactly interest her. A bunch of thugs and an old steel door weren’t her target. Bane was, and as she steps into the building, her eyes move ever upward, knowing that the man was waiting for her.

‘I’m coming for you dad. Don’t worry’.

She begins to ascend the stairs, heading up into the gloomy darkness where she knew a monster was waiting.

That was fine by her.

She wasn’t scared of monsters.


	19. Chapter 19

**_Gotham City_ **

Harleen was rapidly moving down the streets upon her batcycle, while Jason tried his best to keep pace while driving Vic’s Mustang. It wasn’t hard, especially not with how effectively Bane had emptied the city’s streets.

She was focused only on getting to the lighthouse, where she knew both Bruce and Martha were now in danger. ‘Dammit Martha bear’ she thinks to herself, trying to get used to the comparatively heavy armor she was wearing. ‘Why do you have to be so much like your mama and daddy?’

“Harleen…”.

The intercom crackles to life and she hears Dinah on the other end, nervousness in her voice. “No more bad news...please”.

“Sorry but...yeah, this is bad news..Vic stop touching it, keep the ice on” she says on the other end of the line. “What happened now? Let me guess, some giant space alien is here ready to tear the city open? Is that it?”

“Not quite that bad” Canary says back, happy that the woman was at least keeping a bit of her usually jocking demeanor up. She turns serious just as quickly, returning to the issue at hand. “I’m sorry but...Barbara got out”.

Harleen almost flips the bike, her body going stiff and causing it to wobble, her equilibrium screwed up with how unexpected and unneeded that news was at that moment. She manages to straighten it out though, and Jason, pulling up beside her to ensure that she was okay, quickly patches into the comms.

He does so just quick enough to hear Dinah launch into an explanation. “She just...she asked me for water and I went up to get her some. I don’t have any idea how the cell door opened up? Like, what the hell?! Bruce designed that thing. How the fuck could she have gotten out? And then she hit Vic over the head and…”.

“I don’t have time for this”.

It hurt to admit it, but right now she had to worry about Bruce and Martha, and she couldn’t foresee being able to put that off to once again go and look for the redhead. She hated this, all of it. She hated the fact that she was starting to stuff her emotions and her feelings down deep inside of her. Hating how she had started to prioritize things over others when they were equally important.

She was starting to hate the weight that making life and death decisions put over her. 

“Batwoman” Jason interrupts, remembering his decorum while on a line, even a secure one. “Do you want me to go after her?”

“No...I need you with me Azrael. We need...we…”.

“I know” the holy knight says back, focusing on the road. “I know”.

He did, and she knew it, and with those facts in mind, nothing more needed to be said. “Canary…”.

“Harleen I’m so…”.

“Save it” she snaps, not angry at her friend for the turn of events but angry at the events themselves. She knew that it was uncontrollable, so much left up to the twists and turns of fate. It wasn’t Dinah’s fault.

‘No, this goes back to the beginning Harleen….’.

“You and Question go off after her. See if you can pick up a trail. She couldn’t have gotten far from the manor”. Dinah voices her agreement, apparently having already been ready. “The city has changed since she was last here. Maybe we can use that to our advantage”.

Harleen was doubtful but she didn’t want to poison the well, not with so many variables at play. “Good idea”.

“Umm...one more thing?”

“Yeah?”

“How are we supposed to move around the city?” Dinah asks. “I mean...the batmobile is still at Arkham, you have the batcycle and Azrael is driving the Mustang sooo…”. Harleen wanted to scream in frustration, the problem of a lack of transportation having never occurred before. She finds a quick resolution, though it wasn’t one she liked.

“Do you remember how to fly the batwing?”

Dinah goes silent, a lump forming in her throat at what was being suggested. It wasn’t from fear though. No, she was beyond excited to finally get her hands on the vehicle. “Harleen!”

“Batwoman” the blonde corrects. “And if you leave one single scratch on my baby…” she begins to warn as Canary brushes her worries off as inconsequential on the other end. “Yeah, yeah, you’ll skin me and Vic. It’ll be fine! Honest”.

“While you’re using it? Go and check up on Ivy and help out where you can in the city. The Titans and the Society are fighting, and I’m pretty sure they’ve got it handled but more firepower never hurt”. She leans the bike to the side, avoiding an overturned and burning taxi cab, almost falling over due to not being used to the extra weight.

Once again she rights herself, narrowly avoiding an accident. “Is Question okay?”

“Yeah, he’s fine. Just a knock on the head is all. I’ll massage it later. Don’t worry about us. We’ll do what we can. We’ll find Barbara. I promise”.

“Batwoman out”.

  
She abruptly severs the line, her eyes fixing on the shoreline that was coming slowly into view. “Azrael, we have to stick together” she begins, explaining the very first stages of their game plan. “You fought him before right?”

“Not directly” she says evasively before giving her son the full scoop, him having been too young to remember much of what was going on from the vigilante side of things. “He’s the one who rented his army out to Selina Kyle during the Owl War. After it got its butt kicked out of Gotham, he came here looking for us. Batman and I tried to track him down….but, he left”.

“Why?” Jason asks, confused as to why the man would go through all the trouble of coming to Gotham, only to leave. “We don’t know. While he was here he did some drug running, a few weapons deals. We managed to get most of the dope off the streets but the guns? You know how that does”.

He nods, remembering Bruce’s lesson. “If they’re not handguns, ninety percent of the time they’re going to be moved out of the purchasing area. Who’d he sell too?”

“Mostly the remnants of the Falcones at the time. They sold them out to a mob family in Boston. We don’t really leave the city, but we did then to go looking for them. We didn’t find them”.

“So he’s good at covering his tracks, even the tracks that don’t belong to him”.

“Exactly. He’s dangerous Jason”. She goes silent, mulling over it all. He still had a chance to turn around, to put this life behind him and start anew. She wouldn’t blame him in the slightest if that was what he chose to do.

“Jason…” she begins, breaking the field protocol that she herself had helped set up. “You don’t need to be here. You can…”.

“No” he says simply, rebuffing her instantly.

“I mean it” she continues on. “This was always your father and I’s war. You don’t need to keep it going”. He turns his head to look directly at her, despite the two driving, she takes a moment to do the same. His helmet covers his face, but she could hear his voice through their two way communications.

“It became my war when I became a Wayne. Now, let’s go save Batman”.

The lighthouse was in view now, and they were so close that it was clear that the time for arguments had passed. For better or worse, they were in this together, as a family, and though separated they’d only survive it as a family.

“Alright. Let’s go”.

**_GCPD Headquarters_ **

“Harvey!”

Pamela rushes up to her husband and hugs the surprised man tightly, him hugging her back. “P...P...Pamela...what...wh…” he begins, stuttering out nervously. She just smiles at him, placing her hands on his shoulder and nuzzling his nose. “I like that I can still make you nervous honey, but take a deep breath, calm down...you’re okay. You’re safe”.

The inmates, the ones allowed to survive by Huntress’ attack on the Asylum, were scattered around in groups, huddled up in blankets while being guarded by a few of the officers who could be classified as walking wounded, hurt, but still able to carry out simple jobs.

Harvey does just that, breathing deeply and hugging his wife. “I missed...you”.

She kisses his cheek, rubbing his back. Harvey had gotten better of course, with Harleen’s help. But they weren’t out of the woods yet. Maybe they’d never be, but she meant it when she said “I do”.

‘Till death do we part’. 

The situation was tough all around, and without the usually steady leadership of Renee Montoya, herself tucked away in a corner as she worked to sew up her dress, it hadn’t gone too well. “I want more cops on the East Side. Fuck, we can’t just let the Justice Society handle this themselves! We’re GCPD for Christ’s sake. Get out there!” a very stressed Harvey Bullock screams into his phone, hanging it up upon seeing the green clad vigilante.

“Detective Bullock” she greets warmly, trying to be civil towards the man who undoubtedly had a lot more than just food on his plate this time. “Ivy. Good to see you. And it’s uhh...temporary acting commissioner Bullock”.

She closes her eyes and looks down, not wanting to look over at Renee who was humming to herself quietly, immersed in her own world. “I don’t like it as much as you don’t” he begins, misreading her. “It isn’t that I don’t like it. It’s just…”.

“I know. I know. No need to explain it to me. Anyways, what the hell are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be out in the city?”

“We’ve had...complications ourselves” the green skinned woman says. “I don’t know how to explain it, or...well, even if I should but Batwoman is doing the best she can”.

“Yeah, they captured the Batman. Saw it on the tv” he says obviously. “I sent some officers but...they got firepower we ain’t ready for. We’re stretched thin too. Something happened at the asylum. Something real bad”.

“Is...is...where are the...kids?” Harvey asks worriedly, his mind going to the most important people in the world to him quickly enough. “They’re at the Waynes” Ivy soothes her husband. “They’re being watched. They’re safe”.

She doesn’t say anything more as an alarm blares out, worrying some of the patients despite the officers trying to keep them calm. “Perimeter breach. I repeat, Code Red. Perimeter breach”.

“Sonuva bitch…” Bullock shouts out, drawing his sidearm. “What’s going on?” Ivy asks, walking besides the man to keep up with him and the other officers who advance to the front of the building to look at what exactly had breached their perimeter. “A fuckin’ rerun is what” the detective says as Bane’s army once again advances on GCPD.

An officer is shot in the shoulder, a rifle having been fired from one of the advancing attackers. He falls to the ground, writhing in agony before being pulled back by two other officers, each ducking their heads out of the line of fire. 

Bullock looks up out of the window, sighing and shaking his head. “Another army out there. Just like twelve years ago. Damn, and no Renee or Katana to back me up. Alright, everyone, assume a spot and sit in it. We’re gonna hold ‘em…”.

Ivy wasn’t listening and instead walks right out of the front door, shocking the man who for sure thought she would get ripped to pieces by rifle fire. The former mayor rushes after his wife, trying to stop her. “Pamela!”

He’s tackled to the ground, nobody wanting him to die as well as his vigilante wife tonight. He still struggles on the ground, trying to get up to go to her.

The soldiers meanwhile, turn their attention onto Poison Ivy, a helicopter they’d dispatched shining a massive searchlight onto her, causing her to bring her hand up to cover her eyes. The others join it, though they point their rifles at her in place of flashlights.

“You are one of the bats? Si?”

“Yeah...I’m a member of the bat family”.

“Ahh. Muy bueno” the soldier who’d challenged her shouts back. “We won’t have to go far to kill you. Soldados, perparate para abrir fuego”. The men were already quite ready, and didn’t need to be told twice. Ivy wasn’t concerned, though Harvey was. Both of them. 

“That crazy, green skinned dame is gonna get herself killed” the corpulent man says, turning to the officers under his command and getting ready to order them to charge out, hopefully to her rescue. Ivy wasn’t done however, and she had something else to say.

“The GCPD is under my protection” she shouts out against the whirring of the above helicopter blades. “Do me a favor, and fuck off”.

The men begin to laugh, thinking that they held all of the advantages. “Senora, this we cannot do. Besides, your bravado is valiente, but as you can see...there are no plants”.

This causes another round of laughter to erupt from the men, though Ivy continued to be unworried. “Not right here right now. But...did you forget what’s under concrete and asphalt?”

The laughter stops as a rumbling could be heard below them, and the ground itself begins to shake. Instantly, the asphalt of the parking lot before the GCPD building cracks, opening up the very ground below them.

  
They make to fire at the woman, sure that she was the cause, but another mini quake stops them, sending many sprawling to the ground and their weapons sliding away from them. Stalks emerge from the ground, wrapping about many of them and splintering off into even more stalks to take more and more.

“Mierda!”

“Shoot her...ahhhh!”

The roots were now grasping their rifles, at least the ones who still held onto them, and snapping them in their grasps.

The vines and roots grow higher and higher, one particularly massive one grabbing onto the helicopter, thrusting itself up between the blades to break it apart, though it keeps a hold of the wrecked vehicle and prevents the pilot from falling to his death.

The men moan and scream, demanding that they be put down, though Ivy, naturally, doesn’t relent. “I’ll let you down...later. When there are enough cells for all of you at Blackgate”.

With that, she turns around and reenters the GCPD, an astonished Bullock looking at her in awe. All of the officers were beyond thankful, and each begins to congratulate and thank her all at once, overwhelming the woman.

“Alright, alright. Quit it. Quit it”.

They pipe down, not wanting to anger her, especially not when she could summon roots up from the ground to silence them should she so choose. “Okay, so that’s the police station secure. Commissioner Bullock...do your thing”.

“What about you?”

“I’m staying here to keep guard over the patients” she explains. “That should free up some of your lesser wounded men to do what they need to do”.

The officers were looking past her now to the door, causing the woman to turn herself to see what they were so fixated on. Katana was standing there, apparently having arrived right after Ivy’s little stunt. “Katana…” she begins, stepping forward to try and help the woman, whose expression could be read, even under the mask.

The samurai ignores her, and simply moves to the side, not even stopping to address Bullock who just takes his hat off in respect. Tatsu moves towards Renee, who only notices her at the very last minute, though she continues to work on her dress. “Tatsu sweetie..so good to see you”.

Tatsu, sensing the madness that had overtaken her lover, slides to the floor beside her, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She says nothing else, and Renee just continues on with her work, speaking of whatever came to her mind. “What would you like to do for dinner dear? I looked up a few recipes. Perfect blend of healthy and filling. With the baby coming I really have to hone those skills. Everything has to be perfect for them. Perfect”.

Ivy looks on the interaction with great sadness, being able to empathize with Tatsu, though she felt that she should carry more guilt for what happened to Harvey than Tatsu should for Renee.

“Do you...do you think she’ll ever get better?”

Ivy doesn’t have an answer, though her mind goes to her blonde best friend. “I...I hope so”.

She moves back towards her husband who had gotten up to get some water for one of the older patients, a dementia addled woman who just didn’t have anywhere else to go besides Arkham. “Here you go Myrtle”.

“Thank you Jimmy”.

The old woman takes the water and drinks, smiling wide up at the man. “You’re a good son”.

He just smiles and walks off, nearly bumping into Pamela. She felt her heart warm at seeing that, and it proved to her that her husband was still in there. ‘Still the same old caring Harvey’.

Outside of this oasis of peace, a war was raging across the city, and slowly but surely the forces of Bane were being pushed back.

**_The Lazarus Pit, Beneath Gotham City_ **

“There it is” Slade says, his eyes moving onto the simmering pool of green for the first time. Under his mask, he licked his lips in undisguised lust. ‘Life. Eternal life’ he thinks, knowing that Ra’s had been driven to great atrocities to secure these pools for himself.

‘Hell, I helped him commit half of them’ he thinks, turning back towards his gang of assassins. Shiva walked beside Ravager, casting her eyes about the chamber strangely. “Something is off…” she says to herself, though the blonde woman beside her hears it.

“What?”

Shiva didn’t answer, and instead continues to look over the glyphs, some of which didn’t seem to match with the original Miagani ones. They were new, fresh. Slade didn’t notice, nor did he care. After all, he was right there in front of his goal, and he wasn’t going to wait for it any longer.

He turns, splaying out his arms to address his men. “You see? This is the thing that Ra’s wanted to keep to himself! But me? I’m giving it to you too!” His proclamation drew cheers from the normally stoic crowd, each wanting a piece of eternal life as well.

“Come! Take it! Drink of your reward!”

They all rush forward, almost as one single human wave, diving into the waters, uncaring of what may happen. All they knew was that Ra’s had lived centuries due to the powers of the mysterious pool, and they themselves wanted that.

The water is disturbed by numerous bodies falling into it, Slade being the last to descend the stops and heave himself below the surface. The light of the pool shined brightly, and gave him the sense that he was swimming through something like sea water.

He soon emerges, his armor and body soaked by the contents of the pool, as were the others. They continue to mingle there, waiting to feel the affects that Ra’s had spoken of. Ravager was about to step forward as well, curious more than anything as to what the pool would offer.

She is stopped by Shiva’s hand on her shoulder however, the woman still not sure that everything was as it appeared.

“Stop. Something is wrong”.

Ravager is about to answer, though a voice from the tunnel from which they came stops her. “Astute Lady Shiva. Very astute”. Jason Blood, still wearing his priestly vestments, steps out of the shadows, looking towards the robed assassins who now moved out of the pool, led by Deathstroke himself.

“Who are you?” the leader of the League challenges, drawing his blade. “It won’t matter. At least not to you. You won’t have time to understand it”. This only incenses Slade who steps forward, making to slice the man open down the middle when he stops, a strange...weakness coming to him. The priest notices and smiles sadly. 

“I made a mistake once with this pit” he begins. “A mistake that has, if I’m correct, come back to haunt me. Soon, I will undoubtedly face the penalties for my decision. But again...you won’t be around to see that”.

The assassins behind Slade were also beginning to feel strange, and they turn to each other in fear. One pulls off his mask and gloves, looking down at his hands which seem to be losing color, the digits lengthening or rather appearing to lengthen as the flesh ages. The others gasp in horror, seeing his hair grow grey and his teeth begin to fall out.

He turns towards Slade, rapidly aging as he moves toward him, the skin on his skull pulling back even more tightly. “Help...me…”. The voice was raspy and seemed like it was coming from far off. There was no helping the man either, and he falls to the ground in front of Slade, his body now nothing more than bones.

“The pit once gave life” Father Blood goes onto to explain. “I have changed it so that those selfish enough to use it, find that it takes life, and does not give it”.

Slade was now beyond worried, and he drops his sword to remove his mask, looking at his daughter who gasps in horror. He was aging...rapidly. His hair began to fall out in clumps and his skin became wrinkled, taking on the appearance of being nothing more than old wax paper.

Rose gasps in horror as the man falls to his knees before her, the others in similar states. Most were already dead, their bones now littering the floor, but Slade, being who he was, continues on, crawling over halfway towards Shiva and his daughter.

Shiva, steps in front of the girl, shocked at what had just happened, and she wraps an arm subconsciously around her shoulders to pull her into her, protecting the younger woman without even thinking it over. 

Slade was not interested in his horrified daughter, and instead was trying to crawl over towards the priest who was unbothered by the slow moving figure. He now held his sword in his hand, having picked it up again when he fell to the floor.

The man’s breath was ragged, and he looked like a corpse already. In vain he swung the sword out, though it didn’t even reach Blood. With this last act of defiance, Slade’s skin falls away, causing Rose to scream out finally.

He had never been a father to her, not a real one, but still, it was truly horrific to witness. 

The skin keeps falling, leaving nothing but a skeleton inside the man’s suit, his head finally crashing to the floor and the League of Assassins was no more. Jason Blood just kicks the sword away, his mission, self assigned apparently, over with.

He turns and makes to walk away, heading back into the tunnel, but he is challenged by Shiva. “Who are you?” The martial artist did not care that the League was dead. She didn’t need them, and in fact she had acted by herself before. 

Still...she was curious.

The priest turns to her for a moment, fixing her with his gaze when suddenly the torches positioned about them chamber blazed even brighter, illuminating a dark and horned shadow behind the man. The shadow seemed detached from him, and as it turns to the two women, it laughs, an evil, booming laughter that promised nothing but violence.

The flaming torches die off though, and with them so does the shadow. The priest says nothing more and exits back into the tunnel, the sound of his footsteps rising and falling on the wet stone being the only sound the two hear, until even that is gone.

Shiva releases Ravager after a moment, and casts a look over the field of bodies before her. ‘Nothing I can do now’. She casts one look over at the ominous pool and meditates on death, and how this mission, regardless of who led it, would’ve ended the same way. 

She lets out a breathy sigh, moving back towards the stairs and making to exit herself. It is only then that she remembers Rose, and turning, sees the girl standing there, looking at the remains of her dead father.

“Come now” she chides. “Don’t tell me you mourn him?”.

Rose was silent, not exactly sure what to say in that moment. “No…”.

“He was an awful father. He forsook you at every moment and never once said a kind word to you. I saw this with my own eyes” she continues.

  
Rose still offers no resistance, no retort, indeed nothing at all. She does gather the will to say something eventually. “I know...but he was all I had”.

“What about Barbara?” Shiva asks, knowing of the girl’s affections for the woman.

“She was never mine. I get the feeling I won’t ever see her again”. Shiva didn’t know what to say, hating defeatism of any sort. It sickened her, almost physically. She continued to look at the girl though, and she knew that she couldn’t just leave her there.

“Alright then..come with me”.

  
Rose looks at her, almost quizzically, not believing that the woman was actually offering to take her with her. Shiva rolls her eyes. “I didn’t stutter and don’t think this has anything to do with me caring about you” she explains. “We both have skills. Perhaps we can put them to use and make something of ourselves”.

Rose slowly makes her way besides the woman, and follows her up the stairs. The two remain silent, and Shiva begins to regret being so cold. ‘She did just witness her father die’ she reminds herself. “Perhaps….perhaps I see you as an adequate fighter and perhaps...I enjoy your company”.

“Why?”

Shiva regards her with a sidelong glance, warning the girl off. “Because usually you’re quiet and focused only on your work. Speaking of, we should find some. It won’t be in Gotham though”.

“I hear Markovia has another civil war” Ravager says simply. “I wonder which side will pay us more?” Shiva smiles at that, nodding along to herself. ‘Not a bad idea. Already earning your keep a bit Ravager’. With that, the two assassins enter into the night air, leaving Gotham eventually, never to return.

Tickets to Markovia were surprisingly easy to come by when you were Lady Shiva.

**_The Lighthouse_ **

Martha was rapidly advancing up the stairs, not waiting to enter slowly and stealthily, indeed wanting Bane to know she was coming. A soldier pops out from behind a door and she rushes forward, slamming the door forward onto him, causing the soldier to scream in pain.

  
She opens it back up and rips the rifle out of his hand before bashing the butt against his head, knocking him out instantly. She moves past him, stepping over his prone body and entering into the abandoned lighthouse keepers quarter.

It hadn’t been used for a very long time, at least not in an official capacity. Trash was strewn all over the floor, doubtless left there by the bands of hobos that used to wander Gotham. The trash wasn’t what interested her though, her eyes on her father, still bound to the opposite wall.

He was now littered in cuts, crisscrossing his entire body. Bruises as well from the looks of it. “D...Batman” she says, causing the man, still flitting in between consciousness and alertness to look up and see her.

His face falls as he realizes that it was Martha.

“No….no…”.

“Ahh...finally” a voice calls out from behind the door, as Bane steps up behind the young girl and closes the door. “I’ve been waiting tan largo for someone to come for the Batman”. He towered over her, and indeed it was something he noticed instantly. “But tu? I did not expect”.

Martha wraps her lasso in her hands, getting ready to use it on the man who’d tortured her father. “Let him go!”

“And why does poca Martha Wayne, the famed new Mujer Maravilla, want that?” he asks.

“You’re going down” she says, in a rage at what he’d done.

Bane just chuckles, shaking his head. “Ahhh ninita, how many times I have heard that, and from hombres y mujeres so much bigger than you”. To emphasize his point he leans down and pushes her back with his finger, which manages to shake her off her balance, such was the size difference between the two, and send her back a foot.

Bane laughs cruelly, enjoying his mocking of the heroine, though Martha was in no mood for jokes. “Martha..” Bruce calls out weakly. “Go...home…”.

She ignores her father for the moment, too focused on the laughing luchador in front of her. She HATED being laughed at, and she wasn’t going to take it. She roars and launches herself at the man, now taking him by surprise as she slams him throw the wall, careening both of them outside as their combined weight easily cracked the aging plaster.

Bane slides back, the girl standing above him, deciding to continue her assault. She punches him in the chest, dealing a surprising amount of pain to the man. That didn’t stop him, though it did earn her his respect. Instead he reaches out and grabs her by the arm, twisting it and causing her to howl in pain.

“Martha!” Bruce shouts out, now struggling against his bonds once more. That only causes him pain though, and his wounds begin to bleed once more, the lingering remnants of his heart attack working together to keep him out of the fight.

Martha’s arm was broken. She could tell that instantly, and Bane knew it too. He looks coldly at the girl, his eyes boring into her own through the mask as they stand in the attached storage area. “All around this city, my men are being pushed back. Defeated and yet, a little girl, as valiente y fuerte you are, is all they send to face me”.

“Hera…” she whispers again, seeking out her goddess. “Give.Me.Strength!”

On that last word, a sealed plea to Olympus, she throws her other fist out, slamming it into the man’s jaw which snaps back with an ominous cracking sound. She’d knocked a bunch of teeth out, that was certain, as the man stops to pull his mask up, spitting them out onto the ground. Blood runs freely down his chin and he turns ominously towards the girl before smiling.

Martha was still defiant, unafraid of the man, though she was in pain.

“Mas fuerte de lo que pasabo” he says, moving back into the room where her father was chained to the wall. Martha struggles in his grip, but he only twists the broken appendage further, causing her to begin to cry out, though she fights the tears.

“Brave. Very brave to take me on sola”. A large steel cage was in the room as well, and he opens the door before throwing her in, her pain keeping her from reacting quickly enough to reach the door. “The owner had perros. Big ones”. He moves onto his knees and smiles through the bars of the cage. “A good trofeo to bring back to Santa Prisca”.

Martha couldn’t stand in the cage, but she could sit, and while cradling her arm she stares out at the man who’d bested her. “You’re not going to win. The others are going to come and they’re going to kick you ass”.

“Hmm...I rezo that they try. A lucha gloriosa to finish this all. Si. That is all I want, so I may finally descanso, so the espiritu of my hermanos may do so as well”. With that he gets up and walks away, retreating into the dark corridors of the lighthouse’s interior, obviously still waiting for his final battle. 

When she was sure he was gone, she moves to the side of the cage, getting closer to her father. “Dad...are...you…”.

“You shouldn’t be here” he says weakly and angrily, causing him to wince. “I couldn’t leave you” she says, tearing up at seeing him so broken. She’d never seen her father in such a state, so weak and almost helpless. “I…”.

“It’s okay Barbar..Martha…” he says, clearly a bit delusional from the loss of blood and pain. “You...you remind me so much of her” he says. “Brave...strong...I...I fail…”. He lapses into unconsciousness again, his head hanging limp for a moment while Martha tries to rouse him. “Dad...I promise. We’re going to get out of this” she says, having failed to wake him.

She hoped they did anyways.

All she had left was hope.

**_Outside_ **

Harleen and Jason pull up to the lighthouse, the two instantly getting out of their vehicles and looking it the obsolete and falling apart structure over. “Bane’s in there. And so is Martha” Jason says, a resolute tone taking over his voice while he draws his sword.

“We hit him quick, and we hit him hard”.

  
Jason nods, making to move into the building when his mother stops him. “Jason...we’re not holding back”. She fixes him with a gaze through the cowl, and for some reason, he knew that this was very important.

_ “No!”  _ Dumas roars in his mind.  _ “You must stand for something Jason! Even when it’s hard!” _

‘I know’ he thinks back, soothing the restless crusader within him. “Mom...we can’t end it on that note” he says. “I…”.

“We can’t” he interrupts her. “When you and dad started this...it meant so much. It still does. I intend to keep going after. One day, so will Martha. You have a responsibility to remain a symbol for them to follow”.

Harleen looks away, partly ashamed that her own son had to be the one to talk some sense back into her, but the other half immensely proud. “You’re right”.

“I know I am” he teases. “I’m Mrs. Wayne’s first son”.

She smiles slightly, remaining stoic while turning to the lighthouse. The two wordlessly advance upon it, knowing that most likely Bane already knew they were there. 

Good.

She wanted him to know they were coming for him.


	20. Chapter 20

**_Gotham City_ **

“Retenererlos! Retenerlos!”

The man’s exhortation was unneeded, as the remaining soldiers were still desperately firing at the heroes, though it did little good. Terra brought her arm up, summoning a wall of rock that the bullets from their automatic weapons bounce harmlessly off of, while Raina summons her spectral familiar, a raven, which swoops down upon them.

They disappear, hidden by the cloak of blackness, but their comrades can still here their shouts. Soon enough though, the raven disperses, and the men are left upon the ground, unconscious and groaning, but alive, which was more than what could be said for many of their victims.

Another man steps forward with a rocket launcher, aiming it directly at the stone wall when the screech of a hawk could be heard, swooping down upon him. 

He has just enough time to look up and see a green bird descend upon him, its talons clutching the rocket launcher and tearing into his fingers as it does so. Beast Boy flaps his wings out, screeching incessantly which disorientates the man, causing him to step back in fear. His foot catches upon a piece of debris in the road, and he falls onto his back, pulling the trigger as he does.

The rocket goes off into the air, screeching through the darkness before being caught by a diminutive shape which had been flying through the air. Konn’r puts his hands on either side of the rocket and squeezes it until the steel is crushed inward.

It should’ve exploded, raining down shrapnel and shards down upon everyone below, but due to him crushing the time and indeed the entire inner workings of it, it was harmless. 

Konn’r smiles, proud of himself as he crushes it up even more, making it into a tiny little ball that he then throws into the ocean.

The soldier who was holding the launcher, throws it away in anger, sending the bird flapping back into the air. He draws his sidearm quickly, taking a bead on the little Kryptonian boy, wanting to shoot him.

“AHHH!”

A bolt of energy rockets out through the air, singing his hand and melting the pistol which falls to the street in a puddle of goop. Blackfire descends, her eyes ablaze in a purple glow and her hands encased in the same kind of energy. “Did you try and shoot my son?”

The hardened soldier felt fear, knowing that this question made it clear that he and the remainder of his men were in trouble. They’d fallen back through the city, taking a massive amount of casualties, though the men that had been killed had been killed by the police and not the random assortment of heroes working on crushing their invasion.

He was completely paralyzed by fear, though he was soon unable to move for other reasons. A burst of ice flashes out over the street, encasing his legs and slowly working its way up his body. He squirms for a moment, but it didn’t do much, especially when his upper body and arms were covered. 

He eyes the approaching ice worriedly, his eyes dancing over the brim which stops right at his neck, his breath now frosty and visible against the immediate cold.

“Unskyld we are late Blackfire” Tora says with a smile, advancing onto the scene with Hawkman beside her. “We had to be sure that the bomber var borte”.

Carter smiles and nods at the woman, Beast Boy reverting to his normal shape and moving up to join his sister in arms. Blackfire smiles back, though it quickly disappears as she looks up at her son, sheepishly floating there.

“Konn’r” she says sternly. 

“Yes mama?”

“Get down here”.

Slowly the boy begins to move to the ground, and Tora hates the defeated and sad look on his face, making to say something on his behalf before Carter stops her with a hand on her shoulder. “Best to let Tamaraneans handle their own child rearing” he says smirkingly. 

‘The kid will be alright…..hopefully’.

Konn’r had finally reached the ground and he looked away from his mother who crossed her arms over her chest. Only the lack of her tapping her foot against the ground kept her from fully fitting the cartoonish stereotype of an angry woman.

“What did I say about doing anything yourself here bumgorf?”

“Not too” he says back sheepishly, looking around for his aunts and uncles in the hopes that one of them might defend him. They were busy though, moving forward to take on the last three remaining goons which were hiding behind a bus.

He was on his own.

“And what did you do?”

“I helped”.

Blackfire didn’t have any words for that, and part of her realizes that she was being way too harsh. Slowly she gets to her knees, uncaring of the dirty environment, to place a hand on his shoulder. “Mama I didn’t blow up” he says in his own defense. “I can’t. And that missile thing might of hurt someone”.

“I know...but…”.

“Unskylld meg Blackfire…” Tora interjects, already not heeding her husband’s advice, the tired and bruised Thanagarian deciding to let her walk into this parental spat herself now. “But...he is going to be a helt one day too ja? He did good. Veldig bra. Shrapnel is no laughing matter”.

Konn’r smiles up at the ice powered heroine, appreciative of the support before looking back up at his mother who looked a bit as if she was caught between a rock and a hard place, and when that happened? You could bet with one hundred percent certainty that she’d come down on her son’s side.

“Well...it was pretty cool”.

Her smile and congratulations were enough to let the little boy know that the tide had turned and that she now understood that he had to do something. He rushes forward and hugs her tightly, the gesture being returned just as quickly.

“Well…” Beast Boy says, returning back besides his girlfriend and Terra, the rest of Bane’s men having been apprehended. “That’s it then”.

“But not the whole thing da? This was too easy” Terra says to the team with a self congratulatory tone. They go silent at that though, knowing that one vital element hadn’t been resolved. “What of Batman?” Tora asks worriedly, turning to Hawkman who looks down.

“I got a random communication from Batwoman” he admits. “She and Azrael...I don’t know, haven’t met him, are going after Bane to free Batman”.

“Did they want backup?” Beast Boy asks, only for the Thanagarian to shake his head. “No. She made it pretty clear that we were to focus on the city and Bane’s men”.

“But now that Bane’s men are defeated…” Raina begins warily.

“That doesn’t mean we’re allowed to go and interfere with what is going on” Beast Boy says, knowing the score as Batman had explained it to him as leader of the Titans. The two groups of heroes were always allowed to operate in the city, but it was clear that it wasn’t “their” city. It was still his, or rather, his family’s.

A city of bats, and they were just guests.

“Well...what do we do now then?” Konn’r asks, looking towards his mother who felt that this whole battle had been anticlimactic in the extreme. “Well….I….”.

“Can we get pizza?” he asks excitedly. 

“Buddy” Beast Boy laughs aloud, moving beside the young hero. “The city was just invaded. I don’t think any pizza places….”. Suddenly his t-phone begins to ring, interrupting the man’s speech. He rolls his eyes and opens it, putting it on speaker so everybody can hear. “What is it chrome dome?”

“Actually, there is one pizza place that’s open” Grid says, somehow having overheard their conversation, most likely through the very device he was holding. Gar can’t stop the smile that spreads over his face, knowing that if anyone would find an open pizza place in the middle of a warzone, it would be Grid.

He turns to Blackfire. “Alright, what do you say we go get some pizza then?”

Konn’r was nodding excitedly, loving the cheesy treat more than anyone else in the Titans, which caused them all to acquiesce. “Well...to celebrate Konno’r’s first victory we should go and eat something” she says, kissing his cheek. “On Tamaran we would have feasts to commemorate a warrior’s first kill”.

“Well...nobody died here, and in part that’s thanks to the hard work of the Titans. Good job”.

“Thank you Hawkman” Raina says while the rest of the team gets ready to hand off the cleanup duty to the GCPD, who had just arrived on scene. “Wanna come with dude?”

Ice seems eager but Hawkman knows that someone has to stay behind to liaison with the police. “You go on ahead sweetie. I’ll deal with the officers”. Ice frowns at that and looks towards the Titans. “Go on then. We shall all get middag together another time. I cannot leave my ektemann to do all the boring work alone nei?”

“We’ll catch the Society another time then dudes”.

Tora nods happily, remaining by Hawkman’s side as the other heroes begin to move off to their well deserved meal. She leans into him, causing him to wrap an arm about her waist as she kisses his cheek. “What’s got you in such a good mood?”

“Fremtiden” she says simply.

“Ohh yeah? What about the future?”

She continues to smile as the younger heroes take off into the air, pondering on the fact of how time passes. “That it is safe and secure in their hendene” she says. “That young heroes will come and take out place”.

“Hmm…”.

She smiles a little naughtily and gently strokes her hand across his bare chest. “Perhaps we should ensure that a hawk is among the ranks of the future protectors of Gotham, nei?” She follows up her question with a giggle, making Carter realize that he was already doomed.

**_Across the City_ **

Harleen and Jason wasted no time in moving into the lighthouse and rushing up the winding spiral staircase. The unconscious men outside had been enough to tell them all they needed to know, and tact or couth was no longer what they were going for. 

“BANE!” Harleen screams out, finding that her freedom of movement was no longer restricted within the suit, the fire of her rage making her move somehow quicker. Jason was hot on her heels, his sword already drawn while Dumas continues to whisper in his ear.

_ “Do not let your mother fall to her inner darkness!” _

‘She won’t’ he thinks back, refusing to even acknowledge such a possibility. ‘And she’s a hero. Stop talking about some inner darkness like it’s just waiting to come out alright?’

_ “But it is there Jason..regardless of if you want it to be or not” _

‘Shut up’.

_ “It is within you too my boy”  _ Dumas says back, ignoring the man’s mental denial of his wisdom.  _ “As it is in you…”. _

‘We aren’t killers!’

_ “I know, but be careful Jason, avenger of the Lord” _

The voice pans out as soon as they enter into the lighthouse’s quarters, seeing the destruction from the latent fight that had occurred between Martha and Batwoman. She barges in and her eyes land first on Bruce, and then the cage. Martha moves quickly to it, her broken arm hanging limp at her side. 

“Mom!” she shouts out before wincing, realizing that she’d given away their relation while in the field. None of that mattered to Harleen anymore though, and she ambles forward, the wooden floors below creaking at the weight of her armor. “Sweetie!”

She looks her over and gasps at the damage having been done to her daughter by the villain. “Martha...dammit...I told you not to come here!” she seethes, angry, not at her daughter, but at herself for her perceived part in this whole tragedy.

Jason himself moved over towards Bruce, lifting his head to check to see if he was okay. “Bruce...Bruce, wake up...wake up” he says, trying to check his pulse through the cowl that also covered his neck. “Bruce dammit…”.

The man wasn’t responding but it was clear that he was alive. At least for now. “Batwoman..we need to get him to a…”.

Azrael isn’t able to finish his words as a dark figure lunges at him from above, dropping down from the rafters atop him and smashing him to the ground. Bane had been listening in the entire time from the room above and had taken this opportunity to smash through the floor onto them.

  
Jason was injured, his body ached but the man didn’t stay atop him for long, apparently much preferring a fight rather than ending the whole thing in seconds. “Azrael!” Harleen shouts, turning to stare the man down.

Jason kicks upwards at his midsection, causing the luchador to back up as the breath is forced him his lungs. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to allow Jason to move away, drawing his sword from its sheath at his belt.

“Finalmente” Bane says, now sporting some sort of harness upon his back, from which tubes emanate out from, carrying some sort of green liquid into his arms. He seemed to be in pain, though it wasn’t a pain that stopped him. He growls out and smiles at them, his mask pulled up a bit to expose the lower half of his face.

“I never would have guessed” he continues on, standing and letting out another roar of pain, his muscles beginning to grow more and more bulbously large by the second. ‘The green stuff’ she thinks, eyeing it warily as the tubes ended in his arms. “The ninita Wonder Woman is the hija of Bruce y Harleen Wayne. But, it seems rather obvio that her parents are the famed Bats” he mocks.

Harleen and Jason say nothing, while Martha rages against the bars impotently.

“You hurt her” Harleen accuses.

“Si”.

“You’re going to pay for this Bane” Azrael says, his midsection bruised by the man’s fall atop him. “Your men are defeated. It’s over”.

Harleen was in no mood to talk it over with the villain, much preferring to rush ahead and slam her fists into his face as many times as it would take to turn it into pulp. “A pity but, sacrificio is sometimes necessary for victoria. My mission was to destroy Gotham”.

“And you failed” Jason says triumphantly. 

Bane raises his hand and wags a finger. “No, no, no...not yet. You see, Gotham is more than just brick and stone si? It is more. It is ersperanza. Un simbolo. No. I needed to kill the reasons for Gotham being what it is”.

He grunts, almost falling to the floor as he gets another dose of the green liquid, though he somehow manages to steady himself. “No...I need to destroy the people who give them hope. You. And Batman”.

“Not gonna happen”.

“We shall see”.

With that, the man charges forward, forcing Harleen and Jason to brace for impact as the now massive figure bears down on them, ready to rip them apart with his bare hands. Harleen rushes forward first, hoping to use her machine enhanced strength to stop him, which works.

She slams her fist up to catch on his outstretched hand, which instantly clamps down upon her, causing the servos and the steel within the suit’s gloves to creak and moan, not having been ready for this kind of pressure. Soon, it’s a arm wrestling contest, with fatal consequences for Harleen.

Jason makes to help, but soon it becomes apparent to him that he wouldn’t be able to use his sword...at least not on the man’s body. His eyes move to the tubes though, and quickly work out that the liquid inside was the source of the man’s strength. 

He jumps up atop the man’s back, wanting to cut them, but Bane was a step ahead. Picking up Harleen by her one hand, he rushes backwards, forcing Jason to hold on and become unsteady, now unable to cut the lines. In fact, the sword of Dumas is jolted from his hand and scatters away across the floor. 

The luchador smashes his back against the iron bars holding Martha, causing him to cry out in pain as it feels like his vertebrae are crushed. Martha herself was horrified, and the sound that escaped Harleen’s lips could only be understood by a mother who heard her child scream out in horrid pain.

Bane laughs uproariously, enjoying this immensely.

“AHH! Such an batalla asombrosa” he says, stepping forward to let the injured knight slide down the front of the cage to the floor, coughing and trying to move to his feet. Harleen was still in his grasp as well, hanging limping in the air. 

She kicks her armor studded boot out, slamming it right into the man’s ear, causing the man to scream out this time, his ear drum ruptured and blood pouring out of the hole. “PERRA!” he shouts, slamming her against the wall and breaking it before repeating the action on every other wall.

“I will break you!”

He throws Harleen into the air and grasps her throat, crunching the armor in and making it nearly impossible for her to breath before he slams her into the cage again beside he son. “Fu...fuc...fuck...you…” she shouts, trying to reach her belt for a batarang. Bane is quicker though, and reaches forward to rip it from her body, casting the belt and all her tools across the floor.

“Sin jugeutes senora” he says, a wicked smile curving his lips while he continues to choke her. “Nobody is coming to save you”. Jason meanwhile, drew a knife from his armor, looking directly at the man’s leg. He thrusts it out, the steel blade turning into a rod of hot, searing pain for the villain who turns and brings his now wounded leg up to slam down upon Jason’s helm.

The young man feels as if his head was crushed in, though he somehow manages to stay awake, knowing that if he failed then, they would all die. He couldn’t allow that. He gets to his feet, only to be savagely backhanded by Bane, sending him once again to the floor.

Pain.

All he could feel was pain, though it was hard for him to hear anything other than the horrid beating of his own heart in his ears. Martha was screaming out to him, crying due to how horrible the attack upon him looked.

All Jason could do was cough, his entire body bruised and injured now.

“Ahhh….”.

Bane meanwhile turned to Harleen, whose armor was rapidly failing, the warning signs coming up in her cowl. “No...no”. She casts her gaze back to Bruce, watching as he slowly comes too again and begins to struggle against his bonds. 

Bane lifts her again into the air, holding her with both of his hands now that he was sure Jason wasn’t a threat...at least for the time being. The armor now failed completely as Bane put a complete excess of pressure upon it, snapping the armor plates and causing them to dig into Harleen’s skin.

“This...is...sobre!”

He lifts her body up into the air, holding her there as she squirms to get out of his grasp but fails. “MOM!” Bane brings his knee up and then slams the woman down against it, a sickening crack being heard throughout the room as he does so, Harley screaming in pain. 

He then throws her to the ground, her body rolling away, a mess of pain and broken bones. She tries to get up, her spirit being nowhere next to broken, but she fails, falling back to the ground painfully. 

  
  


Her back was broken, and with it, all hope of the bats being able to carry the day once more vanishes. Jason however, was getting to his feet, and witnessed this horrible act. He felt his entire body go limp at how Bane broke his mother’s back right in front of him.

Bruce was struggling even harder now, trying to push through his pain but being utterly unable to. “Harley…” he calls out weakly. She moves up, just a bit and makes eye contact, tears streaming out over the damaged cowl which had opened up during her fall. “Bruce….” she whispers back. “I’m sorry…”.

Bane was enjoying himself, his victory complete, or so it seemed. Jason was rushing towards him, his sword now drawn and aflame. Slicing it down through the air, he severs one of the tubes leading to his right arm, sending a spurt of venom out into the cool air of the room and traveling on to remove some of his fingers.

“BASTARDO!”

He was still insanely strong, and just as quick as he was before. Reaching out and apparently uncaring of the flames of the sword, rips it from the man’s hand, throwing it away again. He punches Jason, who falls to the floor again, not having been able to avoid the blow in his disorientated state. Bane continues to rain blows down upon the man, his face and head being the main recipient of them.

“Te matare boy” he says, picking him up by the soldier and punching him again, sending Jason sprawling to the floor, though he gets up instantly, his rage and adrenaline a potent force that urges him on. He throws an armored fist right into Bane’s face, though it does very little damage, the venom coursing through his veins, though depleting, was still too much of a barrier to overcome.

Bane laughs ominously, not noticing the shadow that had creeped into the room behind him. Barbara was there now, a makeshift mask upon her face and a crossbow in her hand. Bane lifts the young man, so focused on this final encounter, this triumph that would crown all his other ones, that he doesn’t see her raise the weapon and take aim.

“All of you. So easily derrotado” he mocks. “Simbolos? No. Idols to be thrown down. I shall have my venganza. After you are dead, I shall burn this city all by myself. A funeral pyre for my hombres. The ones I lost”.

Jason was breathless, and he tries to speak though the words came out much raspier than he’d intended, prompting Bane to rip off his helmet, throwing it to the side. Jason’s face is revealed to the luchador, and Bane wasn’t surprised.

“A familia of pests” he mocks, urging Jason to say what he was trying to say from before. “Speak boy. Speak now”. 

“Stronger...together...Barbara”.

“Who is….AHHHHH!”

A crossbow bolt cuts through the air, slicing through the one remaining tube channeling the venom into Bane’s bloodstream. He drops Jason to the floor, though the man knows that they needed to end this now and that he doesn’t have time to acknowledge the pain. 

Barbara lunges through the darkness towards the hulking monster, punching him square in the jaw. Without the venom Bane’s body was going into shock, especially with how rapidly he was cut off. Jason and Barbara take no chances though, and they look at each other once before rushing forward and continuing to rain blows on the man who couldn’t fight back.

His muscles began to retract, violently spasming as all of the mass that made them up dehydrates and causes it to create pockets of sagging skin. Neither Jason nor Barbara were willing to let up, not against such a juggernaut of power. 

The two lean back on their knees, watching as the man screams in pain, his body decaying away from him. This was it. Their one last shot at ending this.

They jump up and kick the man, their combined force sending him through the wall and into the sea foam mixed air of Gotham’s coast where he falls through the night down to the concrete below. It was only a one story drop, and he was still, even while his muscles were falling away, big enough to survive the drop.

The man foams at the mouth, continuing to spasm as the speedy venom withdrawal finishes their job for them. The man was alive, but catatonic, and his eyes stared blankly above him as the police moved in across the bridge connecting the lighthouse to the mainland.

Barbara and Jason take a moment to look out over their defeated foe, something they hadn’t done together in many years, and a nostalgic sense of victory washes over them. Bloody and battered, Jason sits next to the wall for a moment, trying to catch his breath while looking at the redhead.

“You came…”.

She doesn’t say anything and in lieu of words moves down to her knees besides him, taking his face in her hands and kissing him passionately. Jason wants to fight back against her, but he’s too tired and too broken to do so, and Barbara was too familiar and too warm.

He kisses her back, feeling her hot tears spread down her cheeks and spilling onto his own, mingling with the tears making their way out of his eyes until they were one solid river. Pain and suffering were mainstays of their lives. 

But now there was more at stake.

He pushes her back gently, gesturing towards their family which were in various states of injury at this point. “We...we need to get them home”.

“I’ll get Harleen. You get dad” she says, rushing away from the man towards her fallen mother. It was bad, she already knew it. Harleen’s back was shattered and she’d need to be carried out. Barbara makes to undo the armor, knowing it would be a lot easier to carry the woman without the extra weight.

  
Her fingers lithely moved over the straps and links, undoing them slowly as to avoid hurting the blonde woman. “Barbara?” she asks out in a state of shock. “Yes mom”.

“Hehe…”.

“What’s so funny?” the redhead asks, wanting to keep the discussion away from the injury, at least for the moment. “It’s just...it feels...good...unfff...about the only thing that feels good right now, for you to call me that again”.

Barbara doesn’t say a word, not wanting or needing another emotional outburst from herself at the moment. Instead she picks up Harleen and cradles her as carefully as she can in her arms, looking over towards Jason who had already freed Martha and was now working on Bruce. He’d grabbed his helmet and his sword, replacing them upon his person. 

“Martha” Barbara calls out. “Follow me”.

The girl just regards her coldly, holding her shattered arm and moving over towards Jason. It hurt her, but she knew she deserved it. ‘I’ll make things right Martha’ she mentally vows. ‘I swear’.

Jason meanwhile, had gotten Bruce free of his bonds, and holds his arms out to prevent the man from falling forward onto the ground. “Hold on dad. Hold on. We’re getting you home. All of you”.

“Jason….”.

The knight throws his arm about his shoulders, making it easier to carry him that way as Bruce was able to slightly stay on his own feet. “Easy dad..easy. We’re getting you home. We’re all gonna be okay”.

“Jason...I…”.

“Shh, save your strength” the boy urges him, the group moving into the hallway and slowly navigating the stairs, officers already in the building, waiting to clean up. “No…” Bruce insists. “I….I’m so proud...of all of you….I...I…..”.

Bruce doesn’t say anymore, though Jason knew he was awake. He just didn’t know what else to say, so Jason decides to make it easy on him. “We’re Waynes, dad…” he explains. “We’re took after our parents”.

That made Bruce smile, and it was with a pleasant thought that he’s able to drift off again, the pain now a dull ache as he is able to block it out. Jason keeps moving downwards, hearing Martha sniffle besides him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah”.

“You don’t have to hold it in you know?” he says. “It’s okay if you’re hurting”.

“I know Azrael” she says, still holding it in. “But...she doesn’t need to see me cry”. It was clear that she was talking about Barbara, who did her best to pretend she wasn’t hearing what the girl was saying, not acknowledging her anger. Jason himself becomes quiet, not wanting to rock the boat any further.

It would take a long time for everyone to recover from the consequences of Barbara’s actions, especially the girl herself.    
  
The bat family makes it outside, where Bullock was already waiting with other officers, paramedics dealing with Bane who merely stared blankly up at the night sky. “What’s the diagnoses?” one asks the other within full ear shot of the bat family. “Not good, but he’s alive. Probably some sort of coma”.

Barbara shifts Harleen so that the damaged part of her cowl and thus her face is hidden as the former detective approaches them, concern in his eyes. “What the hell happened?”

“It’s over Bullock” Azrael says simply.

“I...I don’t know who the hell you are but…”.

“Bullock” he says firmly, somehow willing the man to recognize him at least as a former Robin. “It’s over”.

The man looks at him deeply, seeming to understand that he and Barbara were close to the batfamily. “What about her?” he asks, pointing to Huntress. “She’s wanted for murder. Mass murder. I gotta..”.

“We’ll handle her” Azrael says, being too tired to fight the man.

“Rules are…”.

“She’s a victim too” Jason explains, hoping to make the man understand this key fact as well. Bullock was unmoved though, and he gets ready to order his men forward, wanting them to still arrest Barbara but is stopped...his eyes glassing over. “Alright” he says in a voice that somehow sounds like its coming from far away. “Let ‘em go”.

“But commissioner…” one of the officers protests.

“I said let them go” Bullock repeats, though it wasn’t really Bullock. “We have to trust them”.

Jason nods, as does Barbara who gets the sense that more was going on then met the eye as Bullock smiles at her. They slowly pass, moving towards the Mustang. Martha gets in first Harleen being moved into the back seat so as to remain secure, her back still in a fixed position to keep her from further harm. Martha begins to rub her head gently, crying out. “It’s going to be okay…”.

The paramedics meanwhile, had moved over towards Bane and were now working on getting his emaciated body onto a gurney, lifting him up and then beginning to wheel it over towards a waiting ambulance.

Jason moves Bruce into the passenger seat, buckling him in tightly and turning to Barbara. Bullock ambles up, apparently back to himself and curious as to why he had just done what he did but unwilling to countermand his order.

“You guys sure you wanna handle this yourselves?” he asks, referring to the numerous wounds that the men and women in the car were suffering. “We’ve got plenty of good hospitals in this city, one of the perks of having to deal with so much shit”.

“Thanks Bullock but we’re gonna handle this” Jason says, Barbara moving up beside him.

Harvey nods and pulls out a cigarette, bringing it to his lips to light it before casting a look around, assured that none of his officers were listening in. “You uhh...you’re the Robins ain’t ya?”

Neither say a word, which was in and of itself an answer.

“Thought so”.

He looks at them, seeing their younger versions and lamenting how much things had changed since then. One was a villain or...well, he didn’t know and he was going out on a limb to trust her, or at least the other Robin, who was now a knight or something?   
  
He didn’t understand.

This was a world that didn’t have Mayor Harvey Dent or Commissioner Renee Montoya behind the wheel of Gotham City and from the looks of it, Batman and Batwoman were out of the picture as well.

“So...this it?”

“No” Jason says simply, turning back to Barbara. Just then, the clouds that were slowly rolling in front out to sea let loose with a bolt of lightning, casting a shadow over the vigilante’s back as he talks to the other. For a moment he sees a standing Batman and Batwoman there before him, though it is as gone as soon as the lightning is. 

“You take the cycle back” Jason says, moving into the front seat of the Mustang. “I can drive the car” Barbara says. Martha glares at that suggestion, and Jason soothes the hurt redhead with an ulterior meaning.

“You drive like a maniac. Take the cycle”.

“Alright”.    
  
She turns and makes her way over to it, though Jason calls out to her one last time. “Huntress!”

She stops and turns, catching his eyes once more. “I better see you at the cave” he warns. “If not...I’ll come for you”. His voice was firm, set in grim determination to do just that if she tried to escape. She was already being let off very easy...relatively speaking. “I’ll be there” she says simply and quietly, assuaging the man who turns the key in the ignition and makes to leave the scene.

He trusted her, and he had reason too. As she slid onto the bike and engaged the engine, she took off right after him, following the Mustang through Gotham City and to her inevitable prison. Still...it was home, and if one thing was certain for Barbara, she wanted to go home.

She’d make this right. She had too.


	21. Chapter 21

**_Two Weeks Later, Wayne Manor_ **

“In other news, the super villain known as Bane has been transported to Belle Reeve Maximum Security prison in Louisiana where he is expected to undergo treatment for his catatonic state. The villain hasn’t said a word since being apprehended by Batwoman and the mysterious hero only known as Azrael. Amanda Waller has ref…”.

The tv screen shuts off, the image dying away instantly and Harleen turns to see the source of such an action. Bruce was there, still hobbling along on his crutch. Slowly he sets himself down on the couch, sighing in pain. She knew that under his shirt he was nothing but bandaged wounds, and slowly she reaches out her hand to take his.

“You okay puddin’?”

He takes it, rubbing his thumb along the flesh of her digits, slowly leaning down to kiss it. “I’m fine Harleen”.

“Good” she whispers back emotionally, feeling as if she was going to lose it yet again. She looks down at the wheelchair she was sitting in, her legs lacking all feeling, now as they did that night. She felt weak...pathetic.

“Hey” Bruce whispers, wincing as he moves even closer on the couch. “You okay?”

She opens her mouth a few times, wanting to give him an affirmative answer but finding that nothing could escape her mouth at that moment. She instead just begins to cry, prompting Bruce to stand back up and scoop her into his arms, wobbling and nearly falling back onto the couch.

He lets out a cartoonish sound at the lack of stability, and even through her tears Harleen laughs. “Look at us” she sniffles. “We used to be the city’s greatest heroes and now? Just two invalids”.

He brushes his fingers through her hair and smiles at her, ensuring that she looks up into his eyes with a simple tilt of her chin. He makes a show of looking her over, prompting mild irritation from his wife who had had enough of the poking and prodding at the hospital. “What now?”

“Nothing, just checking to see if you’re still beautiful” he says, pecking her lips gently and laying her head on his chest to allow him to continue stroking the back of it. “Still the most beautiful woman in the world Harleen”.

“Puddin...Bruce...I can’t walk…”.

“I know” he whispers back, the woman beginning to cry again. He holds her tight, just like always and ruminates over his own destroyed body. “We put ourselves through hell huh?” she asks.

“Yeah” he replies. “I guess we did. Do you think it was worth it?”

He wanted to hear her answer, and he knew that she would at the very least give an honest answer. “Looking around at our family and the city? Yeah, I guess my back and your...well, practically everything is a fair price”.

Bruce smiles and wipes the tears away again. “Good. Then we’re in agreement” he teases, hearing a few others enter the room from behind them. “Master Bruce, Miss Harleen” Alfred calls out, him, Elise and the Amazons bringing them some lunch. “Are you hungry?”

“We made your favorite sweetie” Elise chimes out, moving to her daughter’s back and rubbing it gently. She tries to hide her tears, wiping the rest of them off in Bruce’s shirt though that doesn’t fool her mother, nor her daughters who rush around her.

“Mom” Mary says happily, showcasing the food on the tray. “I helped with the potato soup!”

“She did” Elise says proudly, running her hands through Mary’s red hair. “And Martha peeled the potatoes. It was hilarious to watch her do it with one hand” she teases, causing the young Wonder Woman to blush, indeed wearing a cast on her right arm. “Hey mom”.

Barbara though was busy fetching the blanket from Harleen’s wheelchair and placing it over her and her father, smiling lightly but otherwise remaining silent, something of a habit for her as of late. “And Barbara did most of the other work. Wouldn’t let us do much at all actually”.

Harleen smiles at Barbara and reaches out, lightly stroking her cheek. “Thanks sweetie”.

Barbara blushes and nods, still unable to fully comprehend the fact of how things had turned out for her. She wasn’t in prison. She wasn’t even in the cage in the Batcave. So far? All she had on her was an ankle bracelet that monitors her every move.

For now, she was confined to Wayne Manor and its grounds by her parents.

Her “survival” and return had been very hard to pull off, but it had been done so. A story was woven of amnesia and a mixup in the morgue prompting her to be an unidentified person within the system for years before her memory was restored to her.

It was easy to doctor the papers of course, as easy as it was to explain Harleen’s paralysis and Bruce’s injuries as the result of a car accident. It was too easy to lie in Gotham.

Barbara backs away and sits down on the couch beside her parents, remaining quiet. They all quieted down, the weight that had settled upon all of them as of late being quite heavy. Slowly it was dissipating though, and after today it would get even easier.

“Are...are Dinah and Vic back yet?” Harleen asks Alfred. “Not yet Miss Wayne, not yet”.

“I hope the League won’t be too mad at us” Harleen laments. Bruce was quick to assuage her fear. “They can’t be mad at us Harley. After all, we’re not much good to them anymore”.

“I wouldn’t say that”.

Jason was now standing in the door, having interrupted their little family meeting to join in. Barbara’s eyes light up and she smiles up at the man as she always did, though she averts them just as quick. Martha glares at her before smiling at her older brother who had just woken up after a very long night on patrol.

He moves over and joins his family, sitting on the arm of his grandmother’s chair. “How did patrol go last night?” Bruce asks, as usual all business.

“It went alright” he says. “Not a lot going on. After something big like what just happened? Criminals tend to keep their heads down, at least for a little while”.

“We’ll be waiting for them when they come back” Martha says resolutely before being stopped by the Queen of the Amazons. “No you won’t” Elise chides. “Look at what happened when you went out there before you were ready. No. Not a chance”.

“I’ll be ready someday!” Martha protests, stopped as Jason rubs her head and laughs. “Sooner than you think sis. Sooner than you think, but for now? Enjoy childhood. And as for that cast…” he says, pulling out a marker from the table the kids used for homework. He holds her arm gently and begins to write on it, signing it as Azrael.

“There. First one to sign it” he smirks. “When you visit the League let them sign it too. Might be fun”. Martha smiles down at her brother’s signature on the plaster, enjoying the idea of having the other heroes signing it as well. “Maybe I’ll do that”.

“You should. Who wouldn’t want to sign Wonder Woman’s cast?”

The group breaks out into laughter which dies away after a few moments, leaving them to think about another important aspect of today. “Jason…” Bruce says tepidly, wanting to slowly move into the water. “Jenny’s coming today”.

“Yeah” he affirms.    
  
“Are you going to tell her about all this?” 

He turns to Harleen and nods, crossing his arms over his chest and trying with all his might to avoid looking at Barbara. “I’m gonna try” he admits. “She deserves to know everything if we’re going to get married”. With a shrug he realizes something. “I’ve already kept her in the dark about so much. I can’t base things on lies. Not like that”.

“Good on you Jason” Elise says, patting his hand. “Good for you”.

“I think it’s the right way to go” Mary says, wanting to be involved. Martha was quick to tag on as well. “You can trust her Jason. She’s good for you. She makes you happy, I’ve seen it”. She meant what she said but part of this most certainly was directed at Barbara, the young girl refusing to let the issue drop as her family did. 

Barbara snaps at this, standing up abruptly and glaring at Martha, who returns the glare. With a deep breath though, Barbara collects herself and walks off, heading up the stairs to her room. “Sweetie please sto...ohh…” Harleen calls out, trying to stop her daughter from going.    
  
She looks at Martha, a little upset naturally, and she works her way on getting back into her wheelchair, obviously wanting to go after her eldest daughter. Bruce tries to stop her, but Harleen still had upper arm strength, which made it a little harder to do considering he felt weaker than a baby at this point. She gets in the chair and begins to wheel it into the main hall, getting ready to use the elevator they inserted along the wall.

“You need to learn to forgive Martha” she says, stopping for a moment. “And you definitely don’t need to be so cruel”.

Martha says nothing, crossing her arms and looking away as she knows she’s in the wrong. Elise was right behind Harleen now, wanting to assist her daughter to the best of her abilities as she makes her way up to Barbara.

The room goes quiet, the men and two young girls being the only ones left.

Before any words needed to be said, the doorbell rings, interrupting them all and providing a much needed distraction. “That’s probably Jenny” Jason says, moving up to go get the door. “Jason..” Bruce calls out, still sitting on the couch and eating his soup. “After you’re done...talking to her I mean...if she wants to stay...ask her to stay with us for dinner”.

“I will dad” Jason assures him, looking over at his father one final time, trying to take the strength of character her needed from the man. “Dad...this is your secret too. Are you sure…”.

Bruce holds up a hand and nods. “She deserves to know Jason. Especially if she’s going to be your wife”.

The point reiterated, Jason moves towards the main door, leaving Alfred and Bruce with Mary and Martha. Alfred had a slight smile on his face, the elderly man looking much more at ease than he’d looked in many years.

Bruce sighs, putting the spoon and looking at him, knowing something was on his mind.    
  
“What is it Alfred?”

The man acts as if he had nothing at all on his mind and simply shakes his head. “Nothing Master Bruce. Nothing….it’s just...well, it’s good” he explains, looking around again and trying to ready himself for what he needed to say. “I know that the Batman has been you, and Miss Harleen’s, identity for many years. In fact, it might’ve been your major purpose in life. However, there was not a day that went by that I didn’t wish to see the both of you hang up your cowls and try your hand at...well, as ill suited as the word is, normalcy”.

“Hmmm”.

“I know the wound is raw sir” Alfred says. “That you possibly feel that part of your life has been ripped away. I can empathize. After all, I felt like that when I left the army but do you know what got me through it?”

“No, Alfred, you’ve never told me” Bruce says interested.

“Knowing that there was something greater behind the corner” he says. “That the mark I left on the world would not be the sum of my own sacrifices, but in the things I built through them. And when I look at you, I realize that that is exactly what happened”.

“Alfred…I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you” Bruce says honestly, causing the old man to smile as he hugs his granddaughters close, kissing both of their foreheads before ushering them off, knowing that this needed to be as private of a conversation as it could be. 

“No Bruce. I wouldn’t be here if not for you” he says. “You gave me purpose, raising up the Batman that this city so desperately needed, in order to let him raise up the heroes of tomorrow. The mark of a man is not what he does today, but what is done because of him tomorrow”.

Bruce takes another spoonful of his soup, trying to maintain his composure. If he could bring himself to admit it, he’d tell the man that this was undoubtedly the lowest ebb in his life since the death of his parents and that he wasn’t sure how to move on from it. 

Apparently it didn’t need to be said, and the man simply gave him the words that would inspire him further onwards. “Thanks Alfred”.

“No Master Bruce” the butler says, reaching for the remote. “Thank you. Now, let us see what is on television”.

“Alfred, you hate television” Bruce says in a shocked manner as Alfred puts on the military channel, watching over a documentary on the battle of El Alamein.

“You seem to forget that while you and your wife and children were of gallivanting in tights, I was here with toddlers and your mother in law who, despite being an Amazonian queen, loves television still”.

“Ahh...let me guess...soap operas?”

“Bloody hell all day!” the man says in an uncharacteristically exasperated tone. “I thank god that you and Miss Harleen will be around more often Bruce. That means she will be unable to watch those horrendous shows”.

Bruce was enjoying this, finding this easy camaraderie and communication to have been somewhat lacking over the past few years. “And what do the Amazons think?”

“They watch the bloody things too”.

“Ouch”.

He finally understood the horror that the aging butler had had to endure alone for all these years.

**_Meanwhile_ **

Jason opens the door, only to have Jenny spring herself at him, perfectly made up and dressed as was the usual for her. “Jason!” she shouts out, wrapping her arms about his shoulders and forcing his own to go to her waist.    
  
“Jenny” he says back in response.

She pulls back suddenly, though her arms remain on his shoulders as she looks him over. He had winced during their hub, undoubtedly due to the injuries he’d sustained recently. It was something that the mother hen in his fiancee refused to ignore. 

“Are you okay? What’s going on? I haven’t heard anything in weeks! And Barbara is alive? Jason...I know this is hard but I shouldn’t have had to find out through the tabloids!” she says angrily, causing the man to smile at how cute she was when she was angry, like a short little elf glaring.

He leans in and captures her lips, kissing her passionately and silencing all her protests as she simply lets out a sound of surprise and looks back at his face. Slowly though her eyes close, and she returns the kiss just as eagerly as him. 

They separate after a time, but remain close. 

“I know” he says, leaning his forehead down against hers and caressing her cheek. Slowly though, the happiness he felt at seeing her again wears off, and he knows that it was time to get to why he really needed to talk to her.

“You should come inside Jenny” he says, opening the door and inviting her in. She eyes him nervously, feeling a strange sensation that if she walked into the manor, she wouldn’t be the same when she walked out, and that feeling terrified her. 

“Jason...what’s going on?”

He nods and looks down, knowing that it was beyond confusing for the woman and simply smiles, trying to calm her more. “I want to explain everything and just...be honest with you”.

Her eyes narrow and in such a way as to promise violence, reminding him of her family’s criminal background. She gets close, looking deeply into his eyes as if testing him. “If you cheated on me Jason…”.

His mind flashes back to the kiss he shared with Barbara following the defeat of Bane, and the guilt pours into him, not only for just that one moment, but for all the times he was with Jenny and his mind moved to Barbara. How he’d sometimes imagine that her kiss was the redhead’s and that the touches she lavished on him were from Barbara.

“I haven’t” he says, knowing that to be true, if not in spirit. “But...what I’m going to tell you? It’ll probably rock your word a bit more than an affair so please...come in”.

Jenny was curious, and she steps into the manor she’d come to know so well over the past few years, noticing a bandage on Jason’s arm. “What happened there?” she asks. “Ohh...well...I don’t wanna lie so let me just tell you what’s going on and it’ll all make more sense”.

He moves into the house, Jenny naturally following him into the main room where Bruce and Alfred were still sitting, watching television. Alfred stands, smiling at the young lady and bowing lightly. “Miss Cobblepot” he greets. “How marvelous to see you today”.

Bruce turns and smiles at his prospective future daughter in law, greeting her as well. “Jenny”.

“Alfred, Bruce, it’s good to see you” she says, noticing how injured the man was. “I’m so sorry to hear about the accident. If I or my father can do anything, please let us know”.

“I will Jenny but I should be fine, so will Harleen”.

“Yes”.

Jenny didn’t say more on that subject, knowing that Harley had been crippled in what was becoming more than just a car wreck in Jenny’s mind. Whatever this was, there was more to it, and she had a feeling it involved the whole family.

Jason meanwhile, moves over towards the clock and goes about opening the glass door and moving the hands, the ancient wooden clock now moving away from the wall and to the side. He turns back to a shocked Jenny who continues to watch him in awe, while Bruce and Alfred turn back to the television.    
  
“Come on” he urges, holding out his hand to her. “I need to show you something”.

She steps towards him and takes his hand within her own, smiling lightly at her fiancee while gazing into the darkness. From its depths she could hear only one sound.

The flapping of wings and squeaking of bats.

**_Justice Society of America_ **

“Woah! For real? No...no...we need them!” Plastic Man protests besides his wife who also seemed to sport a worried expression. The hall had filled with excited murmurs, none of them knowing exactly what to make of all this.

Question, standing besides Lex Luthor and Dinah, holds up his hands, wanting to silence them. “Look...Batman and Batwoman have been at this a long time right? And they’ve led this city, indeed this whole group through a lot of tough spots”.

The heroes all agreed with this and shake their heads to let the faceless conspiracy theorist know so. “But…” Plas goes on.

“They’ve given up a lot for this city, and now? They want to be able to live their life” Canary steps in to say. “And...well, we’re retiring too”.

This sets a whole new outburst through the room, nobody being quite ready for that bit of news. “No, no, we can’t be bloody well losing the original four” Constantine says, his wife not so sure. “We’re getting old” Vic says. 

“Not any older than any of us!” Giganta protests.

“True but...we really don’t have any powers which means that it’s taken a bit of a toll on us. More so than it does on you guys”.

“Canary can scream” Giganta says petulantly, almost refusing to believe that the family they’d built up together in the wake of the attack on Gotham was falling apart. The blonde puts her hand over the mask she’d taken to wearing, not believing that it was this intense but knowing that it made sense that it would be so.

They were a family, like it or not.

Hawkman was strangely silent, as were Cheetah and Deadshot, though Tora and Frost were trying to hold back their sadness, the latter being much more successful than the former. “We’re getting old” Vic repeats, placing his hands on the table. “And we have other responsibilities we need to focus on. But...don’t think that if you call us, we won’t answer” he says stoically, fixing them all with his gaze...well, lack of a gaze that still somehow managed to penetrate deeply into their hearts.

“Batman and Batwoman wanted to be here, but they sustained injuries during their fight with Bane that made that harder to pull off, so here we are. We wanted to tell you in person, so, as members of the Batfamily, we’re letting you all know what’s going to happen”.

The room was silent, feeling that the decision had already been made and thus was now entirely unalterable, they just had to get used to it.

“What about Azrael?” Hawkman asks suddenly. “The new guy. He’s with you isn’t he? He helped me stop some looting last week. Is he retiring as well?”

“Ahh good question, no” Question says, happy to relay some good news. “Azrael in fact would like to join the Society at the earliest conve..”.

“Ferdig” Tora says, already casting her vote while clearing some tears from her eyes. “He helped a liten jente find her mor. I vote ja”.

“Well, this isn’t really a vote yet…” Lex interjects, wanting to follow procedure.

“I vote aye” John says with a shrug. “Lads got a flaming sword and knows how to use it”. He was most likely just dogpiling because he enjoyed annoying Lex.

“I say yes too because...well, as pompous as John might be sometimes, he is a good judge of character” Vixen says, the room filling with a chorus of people already eager to get Azrael aboard. Lex begins to grumble to himself, rolling his eyes. ‘Like his father. Already everywhere in this city helping everyone’.

“Alright, alright...Azrael has a spot here. Question...Canary, let him know when you can huh? And as for Batman and Batwoman...tell them we’re all going to miss them and that we hope we can at least see them again sometime or communicate in some way. They have friends here. Don’t let them forget that”.

Lex extends his hand out, as the entire group gets up around the two heroes to say their goodbyes as well. “Don’t forget that for you two either” he adds on with a smile as Vic takes his hand and shakes it, Giganta and Tora both bringing in Dinah for a hug. “You tell Batwoman that she still has gal pals here huh?” Giganta asks, causing Dinah to pat her on the back while Tora cries out as well.

On the other side of the hall, Konn’r was sitting with Clara, though the girl was ignoring him, her arms crossed as she pouts. Konn’r had been trying to make friends with her, being told by her mother, Mercy, that she was a Krytponian too, but she seemed to be mad at him.

“Adults are weird huh?” he asks, trying to make conversation. “They are weak, like your house of El”.

“My what?”

She rolls her eyes and turns to him angrily. “The house of El! Don’t you know anything about your own family?”

“I know everything about my family!” Konn’r shoots back, not liking her attitude. “My uncle is green, his name is Garfield. My aunt Raina likes Earl Grey tea…”.

“No! Not that family! Your kryptonian one!”

“Ohh…” Konn’r says, his eyes falling away. “My father was a bad man, so we don’t like talking about him” he admits, causing Clara Luthor to calm a bit, feeling bad for the boy. “Ohhh…”.

“It’s okay though” Konn’r says, suddenly chipper. “My mom is really cool. The best mom ever! She can fly, and shoot starbolts and stuff”.

“Well, my mom is better” she huffs petulantly, looking towards Mercy who notices and smiles, waving back at the little girl. “Though...maybe she isn’t my mom” Clara says sadly, her mind going back to Faora.

“Does she tuck you into bed?” Konn’r asks, taking the girl off balance. “Well..yes”.

“Read you bedtime stories?”

“Yes”.

“Kiss you on the cheek?”

Clara thinks back and acknowledges that Mercy was constantly giving her displays of affection, something she wasn’t entirely used to as they were a sign of weakness to her family but she would admit, at least to herself, that she...enjoyed them. It made her feel warm when Lex or Mercy would hug her or take her hand in theirs.

She could crush them if she wanted but with them, she felt safe.

It was strange.

“Yes”.

Konn’r smiles triumphantly, as if he’d made a point. “Well, that’s all it takes to be a mother” he explains, simplifying a complex issue. “It takes more than that” Clara says, not wanting to agree with an El of all people.

“Yes it is”.

“No it isn’t”.

“Then what more is there?” Konn’r asks, turning the tables on the girl who had no answer to that. Instead she turns away again, once more angry at him. Konn’r didn’t like that as he thought they were making progress towards becoming friends and it would be nice to have a friend his age.

He thinks of a way forward and suddenly has an idea. He reaches into his backpack and pulls out a gameboy.

“I found this in my Uncle Gar’s stuff and he let me have it!” he explains happily. “Do you wanna play? It’s kinda fun”.

“I don’t have time for trivial games” she says with a roll of her eyes, though said eyes peak at the device in the boy’s hands with envy and curiosity. 

“Okay well...if you wanna play later, tell me” he says, powering up the gaming device and playing a game of Super Mario. The bright colors and fun sounds intrigue Clara, who looks over the boy’s shoulder as he makes the little Italian plumber on the screen jump on top of a mushroom.

“And...why are you destroying mushrooms?” she asks.

“They’re called goombas” he says, his eyes not moving away from the screen. “They’re like...soldiers of Bowser who kidnapped the princess!”

“Ohh, so this is an adventure story?”

“Uhhmm”.

“Like Nightwing and Flamebird?” she asks.

“I don’t know who they are but I guess so yeah, if they’re heroes like Mario!” he exclaims, smiling as he jumps down a pipe. Clara keeps watching, biting her lips in desire of getting her hands on the small device to test her own mettle against this warlord Bowser.

“Konn’r” she asks quietly, hating that she had to eat humble pie. “Can...can I play the game please?”

He smiles and nods, handing it over to the girl and moving closer to teach her the controls. “Sure! I’ve already beaten it tons of times. You can play it. I have other games too if you wanna try those later…”.

**_The Batcave_ **

Jenny looked around in awe, unable to understand fully what was being shown to her. The batmobile, the suits, the computer...it was all there, as were numerous relics from villains that they’d taken down over the years. “Jason...you...you…”.

He nods, already knowing what she was going to ask.

“Barbara and I were Robins, yes...and now? I’m Azrael”.

Her eyes widen at that, having seen footage of the sword wielding vigilante who had seemingly taken over for a missing Batman and Batwoman as of late. Now she understood why. He moves over to another case, showing where his armor hung inside.

“And...your parents…”.

“Batman and Batwoman” he explains. “I know every hero and heroine in this city Jenny. I am one”.

She doesn’t know what to do with this information, so instead she just continues to ask questions until hopefully one of them lands and explains it all to her. “Jason...why are you showing me all of this?”

“Because I love you…” he says simply, knowing that that was the best and only truth he could deliver to her at the moment. “And I want to marry you, but I won’t do it under false pretenses. I won’t lie to you” he says turning to grasp her upper arms in his hands, gently caressing them. 

Her heart was beating faster than ever, and she was hanging on his every word, staring into his brown eyes. “Jenny...I want you to know what you’re getting into before we do this. Before we go any further. For years I was just me, but all that time I was being trained by...Father Blood” he says, finally deciding not to omit even this.

“All to take up the mantle of a holy knight meant to avenge the city. That’s here now and I can’t give it up. It’s who I am”. He reaches to caress her cheek, staring deeply into her eyes. “I know this is all blunt and quick, maybe even unbelievable but...I just wanted you to know before you decide that you want to be Mrs. Wayne”.

She s quiet, her eyes moving over the man and smiling. She seemed to have lost her ability to speak, her mouth going dry. Finally she gets a few words out. “You’re not going to ask me to slip into a suit too right?” she asks. “At least for crimefighting. That I can’t do but roleplay? I think I’d enjoy that”.

He laughs, rolling his eyes at how Jenny would always take an opportunity to make a joke. “No, no, I think I’d prefer knowing you’re safe” he explains, holding her close. She smiles and nods. “I wish I could say the same for you but...this is a huge part of who you are isn’t it?” she asks, and he nods.

“Then I’d never take it away from you. I love you Jason Wayne” she says, placing emphasis on the you in her sentence. “And while, I am completely bloody well rattled, I’m going to try and roll with the punches because, well, looking at your mother and realizing just how much she juggles? Being Mrs. Wayne is going to be a challenge...but, one I’m very willing to take on”.

“I’m glad to hear it”.

He moves in to kiss her again when the sound of footsteps interrupts them, and they turn to see Barbara standing there, a strange look on her face. She nods to Jenny and looks back to Jason. “Jason...dad wants you. Needs to talk to you about something”.

“Ohh...umm...well…”.

“He says it’s important”.

“Ohh…”.

Jenny nudges him forward, realizing that she was unfortunately going to have to have a talk with Barbara and that the redhead was forcing the issue now. “Go ahead Jason” she says. “It’ll be good for me and Barbara to talk. Future sister in laws and all”.

“Are you sure Jenny?” he asks, receiving a nod in response. “It’s fine handsome. We’re going to be family”.

Barbara was quaking at her words of course, but she didn’t let on that they bothered her. Slowly Jason gave in and began to make his way up the stairs, casting a warning look towards Barbara who smiles at him sadly, ensuring with her gaze that she was fine.

He trusted her, and he leaves the two women in the cave.

All was silent for a few moments, neither saying a word until Jenny breaks the ice. “I’m guessing you still love him?”

“More than you’ll ever know”.

“Ahh...and...are you going to tell me how you came back to life?” she asks.

“Jason and the rest trust you” Barbara says. “I don’t”.

Jenny sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “We’re not going to have a nice sisterly relationship are we?”. Barbara chuckles in response. “What gave you the first clue?”

“I know you hate me for taking him” Jenny says, wanting to extend an olive branch. “But...he was so sad and I just wanted him to be happy. I want to make him happy. I want to give him as much as I have to give and take from him whatever he wants to give as well Barbara” Jenny says, her tone almost pleading. “I love him. If you love him too, you’ll let him go”.

Barbara looks down and tries to collect her thoughts, unsure of what exactly to say though she also opts for the truth. “I’m going to do you the favor of being honest because I like you a bit. I hate you, but I like you too, because Jason is happy but...I’m going to take him back” she says, sending chills up Jenny’s back.

“He’s mine Jenny, and you know it. I understand him in ways you never will. You may know of this, but you weren’t built up with it” she says while walking forward, stoically eyeing the woman. “Let him go. I don’t want to be cruel, and I don’t want you hurt. But it’s in your best interest if you let him go”.

“You’ve been gone for years Barbara” Jenny says definitely. “Jason has changed, and his needs have changed. Maybe you were what’s best for him then but now? He needs someone who can be soft, who doesn’t remind him of the war he’s picking up out there on the streets. He needs me”.

Barbara listened, though she didn’t agree at all, and both could see that they were at a stalemate. “We’re going to fight for him aren’t we?”

“The fight is over Barbara” Jenny says. “He asked me to marry him”.

The redhead turns and begins to walk away, smiling to herself. “A lot of things can happen between the asking and the I do Jenny” she says, moving up the stairs. “I like you. I hope we can be friends one day”.

The shorter woman makes to follow, already spooked of being left in the dark alone though she hated having to follow the girl who’d just threatened to take her man away from her up for protection. “We can” Jenny assures her. “Perhaps you’ll be my maid of honor”.

Barbara’s laugh is all Jenny hears and that tells her all she needed to know about what the redhead thought of that idea.

Love truly was a battlefield apparently.

**_Arkham Asylum Visiting Room_ **

Renee tries to keep from fiddling with her dress, her eyes remaining on Tatsu’s as she lets everything sink in. “I’m sick aren’t I?”

“Hai”.

The Japanese woman was solemn yet calming, reaching out to take her fiancee’s hand in her own. “But you will get better Renee. I promise”. The hispanic woman begins to cry, looking down and trying to fight the desire for perfection, being unable to. She hits the side of her head with her fist a few times mumbling, “perfect”, over and over again. 

  
Tatsu quickly reaches over and prevents her from doing so, pulling her hand into her own and placing it on her own belly. “Our child Renee..our baby. Focus on how perfect they are” she urges, sending a strange look into the expectant mother’s eyes. She looks down and rubs her still flat stomach.

“Perfect...already”.

“Yes Renee, perfect”.

At that moment a guard comes up, sadly informing them that visiting time was over. Tatsu knew the protocol, having been here every night since Tatsu had been admitted. Renee moves to her feet, not wanting to put up a fuss as her mind was now on the baby.

“May I kiss her goodnight?”

The guard nods, knowing that it was against protocol but also knowing that the Asylum would soon be shut down, the inmates being moved to other more advanced hospitals in the city. Tatsu moves up and takes Renee’s face in her hands, kissing her lips passionately. When she pulls back she utters one word that makes Renee blush and stop fidgeting.

“Mmm...perfect”.

“Am...am I?”

She was like a little girl, desperately seeking validation. If Pyg wasn’t dead already, it would’ve been utterly impossible to keep Tatsu from killing him. “Yes Renee. Perfect”. The woman smiles, blushing like mad and slowly being moved off by the guard, casting constant looks over at the woman she loved. “I’ll...I’ll get better Tatsu!” she shouts out. “I’ll get better and...I’ll come home! We’ll be fine! It’ll be…”.

Her last words are cut off as she’s moved into the security wing, leaving Tatsu to mumble the word she knew would’ve been on her lips. 

“Perfect”.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I deleted the last chapter I wrote because it seemed that nobody liked it too much. I'm sorry about that. I was going to rewrite it to end with Jason and Jenny together but when I sat down to write it, it just didn't work with what I had planned. So, I am giving you a peace offering. The next story will include Jenny Cobblepot, and Jason and her will have a much more immersive relationship. I guess it just didn't work for them here and I just couldn't make it work with what I have planned

**_One Year Later, Thomas and Martha Wayne Memorial Psychiatric Hospital_ **

Harvey sat nervously on the seat in the waiting room, though he knew to practice his breathing exercises. This, coupled with a stable medication regiment had done more than enough to stabilize his moods and mental state. But now? He was nervous about being released into the world again, and the horde of reporters outside the hospital didn’t help.

“Hey stranger”.

The teasing voice causes him to look up and see Renee Montoya there, a wide smile on her face and baggage in her hands as well. He smiles back and stands up, enveloping the former police commissioner in a hug. “Renee, so good to see you. You’re getting discharged too?” he asks, sitting down and urging her to do the same.

She nods slowly. “Yup. I’m happy as can be…” she says simply while looking down at her feet, tipping Harvey off to the fact that something was on her mind. “Something tells me you’re not as happy as you should be” Harvey probes, moving into the water slowly.

Renee doesn’t immediately respond, but she turns, the words just on her lips. “It’s just...when I get back out there...I’m not Commissioner Renee Montoya anymore” she explains. “I’m just...me. I don’t know what that means yet”.

That was a sentiment that Harvey could understand very deeply. 

“Same” he comforts her, patting her shoulder. “I’m not Mayor Harvey Dent anymore. I’m still Harvey Dent, husband and father, and that’s more than enough”. She nods to herself, shrugging it off. “I guess”.

He takes it a step further.

“How’s your son? Eddy right?” 

It has the desired effect and Renee brightens, the melancholy falling off of her like a blanket. “He’s so great! Tatsu brought him the other day and she told me he said his first word!”

“Ohh? What was it?”

“Mama naturally” Renee laughs, with Harvey joining in. “That doesn’t narrow it down between the two of you does it?” She punches him lightly on the shoulder which only causes the both of them to laugh even harder. Eventually they stop though, calming a bit. It turns serious though, as there was something Harvey wanted to get off his chest. 

“Renee...what happened to you...I’m sorry”.

“For what?” she asks. “You didn’t do anything”.

“I did though” he says. “If it weren’t for me you wouldn’t have been on your own. Pyg wouldn’t have…”.

“What happened to me was that….man’s fault” she calms him, taking his hand. “Not yours. So stop blaming yourself”. He was appreciative of the gesture, and while it was a beginning, he knew that it would be a long time before he could fully put what happened to Renee behind him.

“Well, my two star patients seem to be doing well” Harleen says, wheeling herself to their position. The two patients smile at their doctor, getting up to greet her. “Harleen” Harvey says, moving in to hug his wife’s best friend. “Harvey. It’s so good to see you in a suit again sweetie. You look like a million bucks”. She turns to Renee and smiles at her own choice of clothing. “And little miss priss rocking jeans and a jacket again”.

Renee blushes and shrugs. “Just...more comfortable that way”.

“Uhhmm” Harleen chides, deciding to drop the teasing if only for a little while. “Well, your doc loves ya, so, you got the express treatment out of here” she says while reaching to the bag she had fixed to her wheelchair. She retracts twoo folders and slides them over towards the two. “Here’s your outpatient documents. You two are certified to be sane and of sound mind now, annnnd…” she says warning, holding back Harvey’s folder for a second. “Your outpatient treatment schedules which you will stick to religiously or your doc, i.e me, will be very mad. Understood?”

Harvey agrees readily, taking the folder from the blonde’s hands and joking crossing his heart. “I promise Harleen”.

“Good. Your first appointment is tonight at Wayne Manor. Family dinner. Both of you are invited”.

“Harleen” Renee begins, wanting to be firm. “I know you mean well, but, I need to spend time with Eddie and Tatsu” she says. 

“Who said you wouldn’t?”

She turns to see Tatsu, standing their with their baby in her arms, swaddled up in blankets and sucking on a pacifier, his eyes looking out over everything with a characteristic sense of awe. Harleen smiles as Renee’s heart drops in her chest from shock. 

She’d seen them both practically every day for the past year, well Tatsu at least, but Eddie for the past half of one. This was the first time she’d seen them as a free woman though, and knowing that she’d go home with them made her happy and anxious at the same time. 

She moves forward and wraps her arms about her still fiancee, not having been able to officially marry since she was in the hospital, and her son, who eagerly begins to squirm in Tatsu’s arms. He wanted Renee, and the hispanic woman eagerly takes him into her arms, holding him up so that he can wiggle free of the blankets and touch his mother’s face.

“Eddie….” Renee says breathlessly.

“Ma..ma”.

Renee smiles wider and nuzzles her nose against the baby boy, kissing his cheeks multiple times. “You’re perfecto baby boy. Amazing!”. Tatsu joins the woman and lays her head on her shoulder, looking down on the child in her arms. 

Harvey smiles at the warm sight, though he himself is greeted with one of his own as Pamela walks in, Harleen and Harvey Jr. with her. The two children, seeing their father, rush from their mothers hands and towards the man, wide smiles on their face and enthusiastic shouts from the children.

He moves to his knees just in time for them to smash into him like a tidal wave, and he hugs them tight, kissing their heads repeatedly. “Daddy” Harleen says, beginning to cry. This past year had been hard for the green skinned girl who had quickly come to regret the distance that had come up between her and her father over the years as of late. 

“Sweetheart...ohh god, sweetie. I missed the both of you so much” he says with a wide smile, unable to keep the tears from flowing. Ivy was apparently in the same position as she advances upon her family, drawing Harvey’s eyes to her.

“Pamela”.

He slowly rises to his feet, looking at his wife with an expression of utter joy. She says nothing more and just steps forward into his chest, kissing his lips lovingly as he holds her close, inhaling her scent. “God...Pamela….”.

“Welcome home sweetie” she says, kissing his cheek.

“I hope you don’t expect us all to greet you like that”.

Bruce was moving into the hospital, walking still on his crutch, though now he was only needing to use the one instead of both, which was improvement. Still, he’d most likely need a cane for the rest of his life. Elise and Martha were on either side of him, worrying over him like mother hens.

“Martha sweetie...I’m fine” he says to his daughter with a smile. Vic and Dinah were right behind him, their brood between the both of them and bringing up the back was Barbara who still looked very sullen and quiet in comparison to the open energy of the celebrating family. Still, she smiled at her uncle, having visited him multiple times.

Harvey laughs with Pam, moving to Bruce to shake the man’s hand. “I’d much rather keep it to just Pamela” he teases. “Not sure you’d measure up”. Bruce, Harvey and Vic all share a raucous laugh at that, but in the end the quiet camaraderie they shared was enough to keep them preoccupied. Soon, their conversation drifts to other things, menial things, though it was good to bring them all together again. Tatsu quietly separates from Renee to join her Shogun, wanting to enquire about his state.

Harleen, Dinah, Ivy and Renee are left to their own devices, with Barbara joining soon after and leaving Alfred and Elise, and her own private guard of Amazons, to corral the kids. 

“Tatsu really is just one of the guys isn’t she?” Harleen teases, elbowing Renee in the side as she keeps hold of Eddie. “Si, she is, but...they make her happy and it’s good for her to have friends”.

  
“You said it sister” Dinah says in response.

“Mmm, it’s so good to see Harvey smile again” ivy murrs out. “I mean, I’ve seen him smile in here but I was so worried it would never be a real smile again. I don’t think I have to worry anymore. Harleen...how is he?”

“You’ve been here every day Pam. What do you think?” the blonde asks back quietly, taking her best friends hand. Ivy looks back towards Harvey, a worried expression on her face. “I...I want to be there for him, every step of the way”.

“Then he’ll be fine” Harleen soothes.

That comforted her in the highest degree, and she couldn’t understand exactly why. Now though, she turns to Harleen. “How are you feeling blondie?”

“Ohh me? Pfft...I’m fine”.

“Tell the truth” Dinah says, her arms crossed over her chest. Harleen looks at her, having expected backup of some sort, but it was clear that she wasn’t going to get it. At least not the kind that would end with her not telling them the truth.

“Well...I feel...useless” she says. “Like half a woman”. She casts her eyes towards Bruce, noting the scars that remained from his ordeal. “He spends so much time taking care of me. So much, and I don’t...I don’t know how to make it fair”.

Dinah lowers herself to the floor, looking at her friend with a worried expression. “Sweetheart...marriage? It isn’t fair” she teases, causing Harleen to laugh. “Not all the time at least”.

Ivy joins in.

“It’s give and take and you both promised for better or worse didn’t you?”

“Uhhmm” Harleen mumbles.

“Would you still be with Bruce if he wasn’t able to walk?” she asks, prompting Harley to give her immediate and honest answer. “Of course!”

“Then you have your answer” Ivy jests, poking her cheek.

“Bruce is a good man” Renee says, moving behind the woman to help wheel her towards the door, the entire group now apparently wanting to head to Wayne Manor. Barbara was quickly beside her mother, taking over for Renee and wheeling her.

“He’s the best” Harleen says, placing her hand over her shoulder to pat Barbara’s hand. “He’s given me everything”.

“And you’ve given him everything”.

“See?” Dinah laughs. “I was wrong. Marriage can be fair!”

The group of women laugh, even Barbara, though she was the one least experienced in the ways of matrimony and marital bonds. “Soooo…” Ivy begins, wanting to address another issue at hand. “Where’s Jason?”

Harleen’s face falls, knowing what was going on with her son at that moment. “He’s uhh...well, he’s doing something important. A few things actually”. Barbara looks away, unable to hide the pain she felt at the mention of what those things were, knowing that they would be undoubtedly taxing on the man she loved.

“Ohh...is he okay?”

“Yeah...yeah” Harleen says assuredly. “Jason is a tough man. Like his father”.

She looks back towards Bruce, now once more in an animated conversation with Vic about some conspiracy or another. He stops to turn back and smile at his wife though, still hobbling along. Harley blows a kiss to him and reflects on just how amazing her life, with all the dents and bruises, still was.

‘He’s the best man’.

**_Church of St. Dumas_ **

Jason lifts the shroud over the grandmaster’s body, slowly recovering the coffin.    
  
“It’s hard to believe he’s gone” Jason Blood says, appearing from his side and making to assist the young man as they work on jockeying the coffin into the alcove designed for the grandmaster within the catacombs beneath the church.

It was surprisingly easy all things considered, and the two Jasons manage to secure it right amongst the man’s brothers and sisters who had all gone before him. Of the order, it was only them left.

Only them.

Jason is quiet as he reflects on how empty things were now, this chamber used to being a training room and war council, now scattered with cobwebs and empty, dust settling upon the whole room. The order, at least as it had stood for centuries, was no more.

“Jason…” Father Blood says, though the young man holds his hand up.

“I already forgave you Father” he says. “All those years ago”. He turns to smile over his shoulder. “I guess the lesson you taught about forgiveness rubbed off”.

The older man smiles and nods, indeed thankful for that. It had been many months ago that he’d finally let the boy in on the secret monster within him...and the part he played in Barbara’s return. The man had raged, seethed in anger, and it was only the calm and cool heads of the council that kept him from tearing the man limb from limb. 

A quiet anger was established between them, though over time the warmth had returned. It would never be as it was once was, but Blood was happy that Jason could at least forgive him.

  
The man who had taken on the mantle of Azrael sits down upon the council head’s chair and looks about, shrugging and standing up once more. “This...this isn’t for me”.

“I guessed as much Jason”.

He stands up and moves back into the adjoining area, his mind fixed upon the future. “This is really the end of the Order isn’t it?”

“Perhaps for now” Blood says with a shrug. “When times get dark, the lord will always call out upon another champion and maybe one day such an order will be needed again, but for now? I think our work is done”. He casts a sad, longing look back towards Grandmaster Valley’s casket. 

“He took you in right?” Jason asks, having heard the story before but wanting to remind the man of the good things the man had done for him.

“He did. He trusted me, when nobody else would. After years...so long, of running? He gave me a home”.

“What will you do now?” Jason asks.

“Well” he says, standing up and fetching his coat and hat, placing them over his body and head. “Wherever God sends me, I’m assured that he’ll put me to work” he says, making to move up the stairwell with Jason following in shock. “You’re just going to leave Gotham? After all this?”

“Jason my boy, after centuries in other cities, leaving here after a few decades isn’t something that is hard to do”. 

“I...I guess that’s fair” he concedes. 

The priest turns around and places his hand on his protege’s shoulder, looking at him intensely. “There is much we could say Jason, but I get the feeling it would all just be academic at this point”.

“I...yeah probably”.

Jason Blood does have a few things to say though, and he sets about letting them loose. “You’ve grown into a strong and capable man. I’m proud to have watched and assisted in that Jason. You became Azrael, you helped save this city many times and you’ve proven that even in darkness good can shine through”.

He looks up towards the ceiling of the chapel and collects himself, as if hearing another’s voice. “There are things in store for you, things I can’t reveal. Perhaps though...your time as Azrael is done as well”.

“No, no, just getting started” Jason says. “I’ve put too much into this to give it up now”.

“Yes, but...things change of course. I don’t want to reveal too much, as I said. But just know that you’re going to be remembered as a knight, forevermore Jason Wayne”.

With that the candle burning by the wall becomes intense and darts up into the air, revealing the shadowy and horned figure dancing on the wall behind it. “In halls of dripping hate, is where you’ll meet your fate. If it comes to pass that, upon the battlefield should come to see, us arraigned against each other, with great respect I’ll slay you brother!”

Etrigan disappears and with that Father Blood sighs, opening the door to the cold of Gotham City, which was now starting to experience a snowstorm. “Believe it or not, that was a huge compliment from him”.

Jason had gotten used to this, and manages to keep his cool. “I’ll try to remember that if he ever wants to rip my head off”.

“You do that Jason, you do that, but...promise me something else?” he asks, standing at the precipice of the door. “Anything”.

“Be happy” he says simply. “Don’t let the darkness blot out your life. Be happy”.

With those final words, Father Blood walks out into the snow, continuing on without turning back, his footsteps rapidly being covered over by the raging snow. Jason watches, shielding his eyes with his hand until the dark shadow of the man disappears completely from his view.

He suddenly felt much emptier, as if he’d lost another friend, another confidante. 

‘What did he mean about me being done as Azrael?’ he asks himself, slipping into his own jacket, getting ready to brave the unplowed streets of Gotham for one last important task for the night. It would be his hardest, and he wanted to go home instead.

He couldn’t though.

He had to do it.

He himself steps out into the cold, closing the door of the church behind him which rings out hollowly within the abandoned building. The candle begins to flicker, a draft catching it and working to extinguish it. Within seconds it is gone, wispy trails of smoke that rapidly disappear themselves being the only evidence it was even lit that night.

The Church of St. Dumas, so instrumental in saving Gotham City, was now quiet and cold, its leaders buried beneath it. One spirit watches over it though, the spectral knight astride his horse. He was proud, and he would make this place his domain until the passage of time rendered it necessary again.

The roar of Jason’s motorbike distracts him, and he looks out the window to watch his descendant go. “God speed boy. Good speed”.

With that, he too disperses, resting within the church.

The snow continued to fall outside.

**_The Iceberg Lounge_ **

“Alright just please make sure the tinsel is properly placed!” Jenny calls out to the workmen on the ladder above, the man nodding and holding a thumbs up out to let her know he understood. “Good! Thank you!”.

“My dear, you mustn’t work so hard…” Oswald says from his seat, his daughter not hearing him as she moves off towards yet another situation requiring her assistance. Oswald just smiles and sighs, removing his top hat and brushing off a bit of sweat the room’s temperature had caused him. He’d aged, his hair, already balding, beginning to grey as well.

“Mr. Cobblepot”.

“Ahh Jason!” The Penguin says, standing up to look at the young man, offering his hand. “How are you today young Mister Wayne?”

Jason shakes the man’s hand firmly, not avoiding looking into his eyes. “Very good sir. Very good”. His tone was simple and solemn, the smile on his face one of sadness and not of joy. Oswald picks up on it instantly, and his own heart fills with sadness. “Ohh….hmmm”.

“Yeah”.

Oswald looks down at his shoes and collects himself. “For what it’s worth...I don’t blame you. Just...don’t hurt her, please”.

“I won’t” Jason replies. “I promise”.

Oswald isn’t able to say anything more as Jenny finally sees Jason, rushing over and putting the preparations on hold to hug and kiss her fiancee. “Jason! Sweetheart..what are you doing here? I mean, I’m happy to see you but I thought you’d be on patrol?”

He smiles, his hands going to her waist and holding her close. “Hi Jenny. And yeah, I was but...I got caught up at the church”.

She notices his facial expression, and she reaches up to caress his cheek. “Are you okay?”

He doesn’t have words but with his chin he gestures towards the stairway that led up to her office, the one he’d been pushed by Helena Bertinelli in so long ago. “Can we talk?”

Jenny looks at her father who wouldn’t face her, and she seems to catch onto what was happening. “Ohh…” she says, somewhat still refusing to let go of him. She manages it though, and her hands move away from the man. “Of course. Of course. Let’s go”.

She turns and walks away, the man following behind her with Oswald’s words echoing in his ears. He tries to focus on her, but in a way it felt as if she was on the other end of this never ending tunnel, unreachable to him.

Before long they’re in her office, and she closes the door behind them before moving to the liquor cabinet and pouring herself a glass of scotch. “Would you like some?” she asks, her hands shaking and causing the ice within the glass to rattle as well. He moves up and steadies her hands, taking the glass away and placing it on the table, pouring it for her.    
  
She moves to the window and sets herself down on the ledge, looking out over the city. When Jason was done pouring her glass, he moves over towards her and hands it off, the woman gratefully taking it and smiling up at him. “Teetotaller” she jokes, wanting to cover her sadness.

“You know it” Jason responds. 

Jenny brings the glass up to her lips and takes a sip, the cool liquid which also burnt her throat slightly serving to calm her down. “I...I knew this was coming for a while...I guess I just wanted to pretend it wasn’t. That everything was fine”.

Jason says nothing, preferring to let her say what she needed to say and heal from it herself. He’d take whatever abuse she’d hand out. Hell, part of him wanted her too start hitting him.

“We were both just so busy with completely opposite worlds weren’t we?” she says, still peering over her shoulder at him and then quickly returning to the city. “Me with the Lounge...you with...well, you” she teases with a wink.

“The wedding just kept getting pushed off more and more. Both of our faults really. A New Years Ball for me, planning it all out and you fighting the Hive in Africa with the Titans...I guess...I guess we just didn’t have the time”.

She drops the glass, spilling the contents on the rug and putting her head in her hands, beginning to cry. Jason was on his feet, hugging her from behind and allowing the woman to turn into him. “I’m...I’m so sorry Jenny”.

She sniffles and tries her best to dry her eyes, shaking her head and smiling at the man, her hand going to his cheek. “No. Don’t be sorry….” she exclaims. “What we had was beautiful...while we had it. It’s just...you’ll think it’s silly”.

“I won’t” he assures her, wanting to hear what she had to say.

“Well, it’s just...I had everything picked out” she laughs, adding, “control freak that I am. I had my wedding dress picked out, the flowers, the caterers, but that’s not all. I’d packed my suitcase for our honeymoon. I picked out the lingerie I’d wear for you on our first night as Mr and Mrs. Wayne, bloody hell, I even packed you a robe and a pair of sunglasses just in case. Sunscreen too” she teases, going on.

“I picked out the names I wanted our children to have, set aside money for their schooling. I planned out birthday parties too. I figured that our daughter Margaret would have been into ponies by age five, and our little Alfred would have liked army men by six and so on…”.

She begins to cry again, though these tears were much softer. “I guess you can’t plan for everything like I thought huh?”

Jason was wracked with guilt, but he knew that he would only feel guiltier if he didn’t tell her the truth, if he lived a lie to try and make her happy. She wouldn’t be happy. He knew it. Jenny was such a good woman that she wouldn’t be happy unless he was.

“I...I wish things were different” he says, though the words felt weak. In retrospect there was no way to make them painless.

“So do I Jason...so do I”. 

She slowly extricates herself from his arms, knowing that it would be the last time he ever held her like that, and hating it. But, it was better to rip a bandaid off than to slowly hurt yourself even more.    
  
“Well….ummm...yeah…”.

She didn’t know what to say, and neither did Jason, so both stood there dumbly looking at one another. “Just...do me one little thing Jason?”

“Of course”.

“If she ever...is dumb enough, to wreck things between you” she says pointedly. “If she ever decides to turn her back on what the Wayne family means. If she ever betrays you...come find me. I’ll be waiting. No matter what”.

“Jenny don’t…”.

She holds up a hand to quiet him and moves forward, placing her palms on his shoulders and looking into his eyes. “Promise me”.

He had no choice. 

“I promise”.

With that she leans up and kisses him, placing something in his pocket. When she pulls away, he reaches in and sees that it’s the ring he’d proposed to her with. “Jenny...you should keep this”.

The woman shakes her head. 

“No. I can’t Jason” she says. “It’s...it represents a dream, one that I can’t have. I can’t have it because that dream was meant for another woman, and I’m Jenny Cobblepot. As much as I love you...I won’t accept a consolation prize”.

Jason smiles at that, admiring her spirit still.

He had to admit that he did love her, but there was another, whose bond was much stronger than the one he shared with the girl in front of him. 

“Now…” she says, dusting herself off and taking a deep breath. “I’m...well, this will sound horribly rude but I’m very busy”.

“That’s right, that’s right. The big ball coming up. Sailing theme right?”

She laughs and shakes her head. “You actually listen to me when I talk apparently” she laments faux dramatically, placing the back of her hand over her forehead. “Yet another horrid loss for me to lose a man who listens”.

Jason laughs and rolls his eyes, following her out of the office. “Well, I am a detective after all”.

“Hmm...you are. Ohh and Jason? When you propose to her? Please don’t do it here” she says, not knowing why that sudden fact was so important to her. Perhaps it was just because she wanted to continue to see it as “their” place.

“I wouldn’t do that..”.

“I know” she closes her eyes. “I know. Just...I wanted to make sure. Now, as usual the Waynes are invited to any and all Iceberg Lounge functions. I may no longer be your fiancee Jason, but I’m still your friend. Understood?”

“Yes ma’am. Wouldn’t have it any other way”.

“Good. I don’t want any of that awkward avoidance thing to happen alright?”.

“It won’t Jenny” he says. “I promise”.

His word was as good as gold to the woman and she kisses his cheek one last time before shooing him out. “Alright, now go on, get. I need this place to look amazing for you and the others when you get here”.

“All right Jenny. Jeez. Your club your rules” the man says, walking off towards the exit, waving goodbye to Oswald who was now making his way towards his daughter, who was watching after where Jason had left.

Oswald doesn’t say anything, and instead simply puts his hand on his daughter’s shoulder, trying his best to comfort her. He himself was lamenting the idea that the Wayne and Cobblepot families would never be joined, though it was especially hard as he liked the boy.

“I’m so sorry Jenny”.

“Yeah...me too daddy”.

She turns back to her work though, noticing that one of the workers had hanged a line of anchor shapes the wrong way. “Hey! No, come on look closer! Bloody hell it’s upside down!”

At the very least, she still had the Iceberg Lounge.

That was something.

**_The Batcave_ **

Jason always preferred to pull in here, parking his bike in the safest part of the manor without worry of Vic or the others bumping into it on their various forays out of the manor. With the kids being so close to learning how to drive too?   
  


Let’s just say he was glad to have gotten into the habit. 

He parks his bike next to the batmobile, which had already gathered some dust from disusage. He takes off his helmet and gloves, placing them on his bike before moving over towards the car, running his fingers along it and scraping away some of the dust.

“Dad from a few years ago would have a conniption”.

Barbara was moving down the stairs, heading onto the platform that held the crime fighting vehicles of the batfamily. “He would” Jason concedes, watching her approach him, only stopping a foot from him. Her blue eyes search is own, hurting on his behalf.

“Is she okay?”

“She is. Or she will be” he says. “Jenny is a lot stronger than someone would give her credit for”.

“I might have to make friends with her after all” Barbara says with a light tinkling laugh that warms Jason’s spirits instantly. He loved to hear her laugh. “Yeah. That would be nice”. Silence descends over the cave once more, and Barbara moves with a lightning quick speed towards the man, her lips instantly melded to his and her hand threading her digits through his hair.

For his part, Jason eagerly returns the kiss, letting go with the woman for the first time since the kiss they shared with each other after they’d defeated Bane. This one was much more passionate though, and she lifts her leg to his side, him holding it up by grasping her thigh through her jeans, further supporting her.

He’s leaned back against the car, and Barbara moves into his neck, suckling on his pulse point and lavishing him with attention. “Barbara…”.

“Jason…”.

Their voices were breathy, but not with lust alone. It was love, the kind of love that roars back to life after being separated, reduced to nothing but a smoldering flame.    
  
He turns her, pinning her against the car and hoisting her up onto the hood, allowing her to wrap her legs about him, pulling him tight. Their hands rove over each other, happily exploring one another as if to reacquaint themselves.    
  
She puts her lips close to his ear and whispers. “I love you Jason. God I love you so much”. She returns to kissing him anywhere she can place. “Barbara…”.

“Say it again”.

He understands what she’s asking and he is all too happy to comply. He leans in and whispers her name against her lips, the woman trying to reach out and kiss him, though he stays just far back enough to allow his breath to tease against her lips. “I love you Barbara”.

And just like that, they connect again, and her hands move to his sides, while his own move to he back.

“HEY!” Harleen shouts from above, the elevator having been bringing her down slowly. “No baby making on the batmobile!” she shouts out, joined by her husband who smiles at the two as well. They separate quickly, though Barbara keeps hold of his hand, blushing like mad as the two former vigilantes comes down.

The elevator finally stops, and the two disembark, Bruce pushing Harleen’s wheelchair and in turn using it to support his own unsteady gait. “We thought you two would be down here...considering you didn’t rejoin the party”.

“Umm...sorry, I...I kinda forgot” Jason admits.

“Forgot, or did Barbara suck it out of your lips?”

“Mom…” Barbara says warningly, causing the blonde to call off her teasing. “Alright, I’ll let it go...but..it’s actually good that we caught you both down here”.

Bruce nods, urging them up to the main area. The younger couple moves up, joining their adoptive parents in front of the display cases that contained their batsuits, upon which Bruce looks wistfully upon. 

  
“How did it go with Jenny sweetie?” she asks Jason who smiles and shakes his head. “As well as it can be hoped to have gone mom”.

Barbara squeezes his hand, and it comforts him that she was there. ‘She knows your world Jason’ he reminds himself. ‘She knows you. More than anyone. She’s...my other piece’.

“It’ll be okay sweetie. You still friends?”

“Always”.

Harleen smiles at that.    
  
“Sometimes that’s even better”.

“What was it you wanted to talk about?” Barbara asks, wanting to understandably get the subject off of Jenny. She’d won, finally, over the woman, and now she had no desire to continue to rub it in her face, even by discussing it. 

“Well...you sweetie pie for one” she teases. “When ya gonna get a job? I mean, helping me around the house, I appreciate it a ton but I want ya to have something you really wanna do. Something you aspir…”.

“The police academy”.

The words were off her lips before Harleen was even ready for them, and everyone looks at her askance, causing her to blush and become defensive. “What?” she asks. “I’ve thought about this stuff…”.

“I think it’s an amazing idea” Bruce says, already in agreement, glad that half of the issues on the table were now off of the table. “Good for you Barb” Jason says, and leans in to peck her cheek. “You’ll be a good cop. I know it”.

“I...I want to make it right” she admits, causing Harleen’s heart to beat faster. “Sweetie...you don’t…”.

“Mom, with all due respect, please don’t psychoanalyze me okay?” she pleads. “I do. I have to make it right. My heart says I do”.

Jason wraps his arm around her waist, pulling her in tightly to his side to comfort her. It works too, and she lays her head on his shoulder. Harleen sighs and smiles, looking up at Bruce. “She’s ready puddin’”.

It was apparent now that they were probing her for an answer to an unspoken question, and from Jason’s expression it was clear he wasn’t aware either. Bruce is in agreement though and he looks on his two oldest children.

“Barbara...Jason...I want you to take up our mantles”.

The two go slack jawed, not knowing what he fully meant in one way, but knowing exactly what he meant in another. “The world needs Batman, and Batman…” he pauses, leaning down to kiss Harleen lovingly. “Needs Batwoman”.

Harleen reaches up to stroke his cheek with her hand. “You’re darn tootin’”.

“Bruce…”.

“You’ve proven yourself worthy Jason” he goes on. “Time and time again, through the years. Even before you became Azrael, you were more than worthy to take on my cowl. I selfishly tried to keep it from you out of misguided notions of keeping you safe”.

He smiles.

“But you set me straight. You’re a Wayne. This” he gestures with his chin towards the batsuit. “That is your birthright Jason, not through blood, but through earning it”.

“Well, some blood too” Harleen adds. “After all, you’ve bled for this city haven’t you?”

Jason thinks it over for a moment, going back to Father Blood’s words about how this was the end of Azrael, but not of Jason being a hero. His eyes are drawn back towards the suit, and he lets it all fit together. This? This was destiny. 

“I’m honored Bruce” he says. “I won’t let you down”.

Barbara was less convinced, and indeed worried. “Did you two forget that I’m a killer?” she asks, letting go of Jason’s hand and breathing heavily. “How? How can you have just...forgiven me? For all that I’ve done?”

“Barbara, you’ll understand when you’re a mother yourself one day” Harleen says, rolling herself forward to take her daughter’s hand. “I was unsure myself to be honest but when you said that you wanted to make things right? Well….this is your chance sweetie. To play things by the book again. To be the Robin you always were...just wearing a different suit”.

“Mom...how...how can you love me this much?” she asks, beginning to cry. “I don’t even deserve this. I don’t…”.

“Shhhhh” Harleen says, reaching up to place her hand over her daughter’s mouth. “Don’t try to psychoanalyze yourself Barbara. That’s my job” she teases with a wink. “And I’m telling you that I think you’re rough around the edges and got some things to work on but...you’re worthy sweetie pie. More than worthy”.

Barbara looks towards the batsuit her mother once wore, lifeless in the case, waiting for a face to be behind it once more.

“Batwoman has come to represent so much to this city” Bruce says, adding his two cents. “She’s the soft and the loving to Batman’s hard and tough. I think the roles have flipped with this next generation” he says, looking towards the two former orphans.

“But the rules have stayed the same. The night still needs two defenders, a symbol of hope that shines brightest in the darkness”.

“One that stands up for what’s right when anyone else woulda’ run” Harleen says.

“I’ll be with you” Jason says, somehow tipping the scale. She wasn’t sure how, but that fact steadied her. If Jason was with her, she knew, knew in her heart, she could do anything. 

_ “Do it Barb”  _ Jim whispers.  _ “I’m so proud of you though. Whatever you choose. I just think this is what you really want”. _

Barbara walks towards the case, staring up at the suit and letting the momentous meaning behind it settle upon her mind. “Do I get to use my crossbow again? Non lethal bolts of course”.

“Already outfitted it as such” Bruce choruses out, watching Jason look at his father’s old suit besides Barbara. “Alright…” she says. “I’ll do it”.

“Good, because as I see it? Tonight’s a good night for patrol. Also, to introduce yourself to the Society. They’ll be happy to have Batman back for sure” Harleen says, moving her way over to the batcomputer besides her husband who sits down at the evidence sorting station, getting things ready.

“Suit up” he calls over his shoulders. 

Harleen powers up the computer, which takes a moment of course due to the months of disuse, but it starts up quickly enough. A headset quickly goes on and she patches into the system. “I’ll be helpin’ you guys out in the field with up to date info”.

“Always the mother hen” Bruce teases. 

“Actually, I was thinking more of like...an Oracle or something? Sounds mystical and cool”.

“Oracle it is then” Bruce says, dusting off the station and readying the electroscopes and slides, wanting them to be clean for any physical microscopic evidence left behind. He didn’t want any interference. The two are left staring in awe at how easily things seemed to sway here in this family. 

“Well...are you gonna go or not?” Bruce asks jovially.

Barbara and Jason both look at each other, sly smiles coming to their faces. “Guess we aren’t Robins anymore huh?” she asks, drawing laughter from the boy. “No, but I do wanna see you in those panties again”.

She thwacks him against the shoulder, blushing like a ripe tomato.    
  
“Jerk”.

He responds by pulling her to him, kissing her one last time before letting the awestruck woman go, serious expression now on his face. “Suit up...Batwoman”.    
  
With that he heads to the case, retracting the suit he’d always wanted to wear.

The suit he was now worthy of.

He was Batman, but he wasn’t alone. He never was.

He had a Batwoman.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the 2nd to last chapter guys! Can you believe it? Holy crap we are at the end of the tunnel after four months of updates and what not. Wow. Wowwwwwwww so thankful to you, the readers, especially those who've stuck with me and helped so much with your reviews! I love you guys!

**_A Few Months Later, Wayne Manor, Harleen’s Office_ **

“Soooo…?”

  
“So what?” Barbara asks, fiddling with her belt. “How was your first day as an official GCPD officer? Duh?” her mother teases her, seated on the other side of the desk. She takes a moment to look at the photograph she’d placed upon her desk, taken on the day Barbara graduated the police academy. It had only happened last week, but like any proud mother she’d had the photograph instantly printed and framed.

It showed her, wearing her uniform and hat with pride, the diploma held before her with Bruce on one side and Harleen seated on the other. 

Harleen reaches out and strokes the girl’s cheek through the picture, unable to get over how far Barbara had come in such a short time. “Officer Barbara Wayne, GCPD” she says to herself, making Barbara join in with her good smile, a bit of pride coming to her over what she’d accomplished.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine mo…”.

“Nooooo” Harleen says, cutting her off. “I know my little girl and I can tell that you’re still nervous about something. Your therapy isn’t ever going to end Barbara. Just like you Aunt Renee and Uncle Harvey” she says, going over two of her other success stories. She’d continued to see them, and it helped.  
  
Harvey avoided politics like the plague now, despite being begged to run for mayor again. He wanted to focus on his family though...from what she’d heard from Ivy, she herself might run for mayor. ‘Probably win too’ the blonde jokes to herself, looking back towards Barbara.

“How are they doing?”

She was stalling, buying time, but in the end she’d fess up like she always did. “They’re doing really well. Harvey is really a master of his emotions now. Before? It was as if he wouldn’t allow his anger to be a part of him, and it created a feedback loop of negative emotions that manifested as being an entirely different person. By reintegrating his feelings back into who he is, he became one whole guy again”.

“I’m sure Aunt Pam is happy huh?”

“Uhhmm...but Aunt Pam isn’t the subject of our meeting today is it?”

“No but...how is Montoya doing?”

Harleen decides to let stall for just a bit more, but this was the last free pass. “She’s good too sweetie. In the end, her desire with perfection is waning but we have to keep a close watch. Brainwashing can do a whole helluva lot of damage. But her son and wife are there to help her through it, and she meets with me every week. Works at a flower shop now believe it or not”.

Barbara goes silent, realizing that there was nowhere else for her to run verbally. “So...onto my current patient...Barbara Wayne. How is she feeling about the big day tomorrow?”

Barbara looks up and out the window overlooking the yard where the children were now engaged in a game of tag. She smiles at that, taking from it courage and comfort to know that some things were at least normal. “I feel...guilt”.

“And now we’re getting somewhere” Harleen says, leaning back in her wheelchair and interlacing her fingers through one another. “Why do you feel guilty?”

“Wouldn’t you?” she asks exasperatedly, throwing her hands out to the sides. “I killed people mom. I hurt countless others. And yet, here I am, in my house, comfy and safe. I’m a police officer now. I have all of you. Why do I deserve this? I don’t. I...I still wake up and see a monster in the mirror...the guilt, it’s eating me up inside”.

“I personally don’t believe in guilt” Harleen says, taking the girl for a loop. “I think guilt only comes about when people want to ignore the real life ramifications of what they’ve done. When they don’t want to actually take action to make things right….but that doesn’t fit you does it?” she asks pointedly. “I mean, for years before the Lazarus Pit and the League, you were a hero, and you never killed anyone then”.

“Mom, I killed them all. At the asylum”.

“You didn’t” Harleen says. “Not all. Just some. The worst of the wor…”.

“Don’t play semantics” the redhead sighs. “I killed and we both know it. I broke dad’s one rule yet here I am, running around in your old uniform like it never happened”.

Harleen looks down, not knowing what to say to that. For all her talk of guilt, she knew that she carried it around with her as well and that was possibly the reason she hadn’t been nearly as hard upon Barbara as perhaps she should’ve been.

“Alright...you did. Now what?” she asks.

“Do I turn you in to the police? Expose the family secret and put all of us, everyone here in harm’s way?” she asks. “Do I have my little girl locked up for doing the one thing I wanted to do every fucking day of my life, especially when she’d had a psychopathic monster whispering in her ear for years?”

“I did what…”.

“Yes” Harleen cuts her off. “And you have to own it but listen, if Patty Hearst can get off for what she did? So can you in my book. You’re not going to have an impartial jury anywhere in the Wayne Family Barbara. We’d all vote not guilty every time, be it a flat out not guilty in me and your nana’s case, or a not guilty by reason of insanity in Bruce’s and Alfred’s”.

“Martha would give me the electric chair” Barbara says with a smirk that hid her sadness at such a fact, meanwhile she leans back in the chair and crosses her arms over her chest, trying to huddle into herself.

“She’ll get over it sweetie. She will. I mean, she’s warmed up a bit hasn’t she? At least she asks you politely to pass the salt at dinner and doesn’t ignore you now”.

Barbara saw that as a win, though not necessarily the win that she wanted. ‘You gotta work harder for it…’ she reminds herself.

“I just…”. She leans forward, supporting herself by placing her elbows on her knees. “I...see all the harm I did and then I remember what I was supposed to be and I feel like a fu...screw up. That’s the least of my issue though” she says, having made an active promise to try and curse less. “I hurt them...and I enjoyed it. I ended their lives the same way they did to so many”.

“Not the same way” Harleen responds, “and that’s why I still saw you within the Huntress Barbara” she consoles. “You regret what you did. Joker, Pyg, Scarecrow...they never regretted what they did. They revelled in it. I saw it everyday and I can’t pretend that I didn’t. I was their doctor. Not once did I see in them what I’m seeing in you. Regret, guilt, those mean that you’re a good person Barbara, but you can’t let those emotions hold you back”.

“I’m trying…”.

“I don’t think you’re trying hard enough” Harleen says. “Your case is classic denial of self through the means of self doubt and guilt. You feel you don’t deserve a future, so you’re working to sabotage it yourself”.

“That’s not…”.

“It is though” Harleen says, reaching out for a jellybean she kept in a small glass bowl on her desk and popping it into her mouth. She closes her eyes and savors the taste, smiling. “Cherry. The best one. But, we’ve all forgiven you Barbara. We’ve all thought it over and we’ve kept you close to keep you safe in a way we didn’t before” she explains. “You haven’t forgiven yourself, and that’s something we’re going to have to keep working on”.

Barbara didn’t know what to say to that, and indeed didn’t have anything to say to that. It was true. None of them, Marth excluded, treated her like a monster to be put in a cage. These were the best people she’d ever known, and yet they weren’t burning her at the stake.

Part of it was undoubtedly because it would be in their best interests to let sleeping dogs lie. If Barbara’s story came to light then the whole Wayne family would go down, which is something she would never let happen.

‘I’d slit my wrists first’ she vows, knowing that she meant it.

“Two weeks ago, remember that apartment building that was on fire?” Harleen asks. “I was asleep, your Uncle on Oracle duties that night but he told me about it in the morning. Batwoman apparently, rushed forward into the burning building, not caring for her own life, in order to save a little girl and her puppy that were hidden up on the fourth floor in a closet”.

Batwoman and Barbara were one and the same, though Harleen always used the lens of her nighttime escapades alongside Jason to draw a harsh contrast between what was, and what is.

“The next night, she saved a young girl in an alley from a would be rapist. The next? A car wreck and an old lady. The list goes on and on, stretching back into when she first donned the cowl, hell, even earlier than that when she wore that ridiculous red and green get up”.

The redhead chuckles at that, blushing and rolling her eyes, always lamenting the fact that she thought it was a good idea back then.

“We’re more than the sum of our wrongs Barbara” she says, leaning forward and reaching across the desk to take the girl’s hands. “Things could’ve been this, or they could’ve been that. Hell, I could’ve fallen in love with the Joker and become the Harley Quinn character he always wanted me to be”.

Barbara begins to laugh uproariously at this, finding the whole idea of her mother being a criminal’s sidekick, let alone lover, a hilarious one. Harley joins in on it, remembering the nightmarish vision her mind conjured up under the effect of Scarecrow’s fear toxin all those years ago. 

Now she found it hilarious.

“Yuck me sleeping with pale and gruesome?” Harley goes on, glad for the lightening of the mood. “That would sure be a far cry from your father and all his...muscles and how he kisses…”.

“Alright mom cool it, cool it” Barbara says, making a puking motion at hearing her mother describe her father in such a way. Harleen goes on, pretending to not be lost in daydreams of exactly that and shakes her head to bring her back to the conversation.

“My point Barbara? You need to forgive yourself and realize that what happened was not fully you. You need to take responsibility of course, and you need to remember what happened so that it doesn’t happen again, but you need to move forward. You were practically still just a child when this happened and you were immediately thrown in with the worst kind of people. You’ve done a lot of good. I want you to focus on that”.

“Alright…”.

“Are you taking your meds?” she asks, knowing that this was a more controversial topic. Of course they were nothing more than mood stabilizers, nothing serious, but still, she worried that they might have a negative affect, and in light of her night job and now day job? She wanted to be especially careful.

“Yeah mom. Every morning and every night” she says. “Jason makes sure of it”.

“Ahh good ole’ Jason. I can always count on him to keep my little girl in line. And...about tomorrow? Are you nervous?”

“I mean...yeah”.

Harleen probes deeper. “Does this have anything to do with why you seem so solemn and sad now?”  
  


“I...I feel like I don’t deserve him mom” she says. “Like this is wrong and that he should still be with Jenny but it’s my fault that he’s not. I’m afraid he’s just with me out of fear, or maybe because I’m more familiar or just the easy choice…”.

Harleen tries to hold in her laughter at that, drawing the ire of her redheaded daughter. “What?”

“I’m sorry sweetie it’s just...you? The easy choice?” she begins to laugh. “You get angry so quickly, snore in bed, and yes, I’ve heard ya at night, and eat ketchup with everything. Trust me, you’re not the easy choice” she says, causing the girl to deflate, Barbara finding it a very cruel sentiment to express, especially from her own mother.

But Harleen follows it up with something that causes all her offense to melt away. “But, you’re definitely the right one. No woman, except for me, his mama of course, has loved him for who he is quite like you. Nobody has shared his struggles, stood beside him, and given as much of herself to him as you have”.

Barbara blushes at this and looks away, though her mother brings her back in. “And let me clue you in about something with love. It isn’t about deserve. Love isn’t a transaction. We all get things we don’t deserve. Love...it just is. It’s a gift sweetie, freely given with no strings attached. It is the one thing in life that should be free. So, don’t think about if you deserve it or not”.

She chuckles, her mind going off to the party she’d been invited to by Bruce all those years ago. “When your dad first invited me to Wayne Manor for a party, I showed up in a yellow cab with a Walmart dress, and I was surrounded by women who made me look like Cinderella without the fairy godmother. I definitely didn’t feel like I deserved your dad, but...here I am” she says, showing her hand that still held her wedding ring.

“Mrs. Wayne for thirteen years and still going , and with divorce rates these days? Sheesh, your dad and I are practically an ancient couple…”.

Barbara’s eyes go wide at that and Harleen realizes what made her worry. “No, no, we’re not getting divorced. But...I did offer it to him” she explains, thinking back to when she had first been released from the hospital following the “car accident”. 

“I was sitting in this chair, crying to myself and thinking that it was over, and I definitely didn’t want to drag your dad down with me. I mean...I can’t exactly rock his world anymore. I can’t dance with him. I can’t...well, I can’t do a lot of things I used to be able to do so I told him that I would understand if he left me. Know what he said?”

“No”.

Barbara was waiting with baited breath for the woman’s words, Harleen once again lost in the past. “He said…”.

_“Are you insane?” Bruce asks, moving to his knees and wincing in pain, realizing that that wouldn’t be possible in that moment._

_“Bruce...I...I can’t make you happy anymore puddin’. Look at me...I’m broken” she cried out, gesturing to her useless legs. Bruce meanwhile moved her towards the couch and sat down, still in pain but more than willing to weather it to placate his wife._

_“You’ve made me happy every second of every day Harleen”._

_“That was then, this is…”._

_“Nothing’s changed” he says, rubbing her face and moving a bit closer. “Nothing. Do you see me as broken? Unloveable now because I can barely walk?”_

_“Puddin...of course not”._

_“Then why expect me to feel any different about you?” he says, unusually calm as he strokes her hair. “I’ll carry you everywhere we need to go Harleen. For the rest of our lives, I’ll be your legs, as unsteady as they might be. Do you know why?”_

_“No…”._

_She had begun to cry then, not being ready for the shear devotion she saw in her husband’s eyes._

_He takes her hand and places it on his chest, allowing her to feel his strong heartbeat, which persevered on, even past the bandages and past the attack it had suffered. “Because you’ve been my heart for all these years” he admits. “I’ve...thought about it alot and done some reflection. I realize that without you? I would’ve become cold and jaded, possibly overwhelmed if I had embarked on this alone. But, because you were there, I didn’t. You’ve been the one constant miracle in my life, from which all the others have come Harleen”._

_He moves in and kisses her passionately, an action Harleen eagerly returns. When he pulls back, he whispers against her lips. “And I’m not throwing away the greatest thing to happen to me. The woman I never deserved but got anyways”._

Barbara was stunned and Harleen smiles back at her, a tear rolling down her cheek. “He said that. He said he felt he didn’t deserve me, so there we were, two people who had done everything together for years, saying we didn’t deserve each other. Well, let me tell you something. Those years were filled with us beating up bad guys, saving the city, making and raising adorable babies, suffering through a horrid loss, making love so many times and in so many naughty ways…”.

“I’m not listening…” she says back, though her mother’s words had an effect on her.

“And here we were, both thinking we didn’t deserve one another. Well, maybe we’re both just major league lucky then, because we were together then, and we’re still together now so stop looking a gift horse in the mouth sweetie okay?”.

“......alright mom”.

“Good. Now, homework time. Work on that self guilt and write me three pages on what you like about yourself. Also...get some rest. Tomorrow is your second day on the job and I already know that Bullock is going to toss you right into the deep end, and with what’s going to be happening after? Well, be rested. I already got the Society ready to send Hawkman on your patrol tonight”.

“Alright mom...thanks”. She gets up, pushing the chair back before stopping. “I...I never thanked you”.

Harleen was busy replacing Barbara’s case file in her own personal cabinet, right alongside Harvey and Renee’s, the “personal ones”. 

“For taking me in..” she says, making Harleen halt in her movement. “Sweetie...I just told you love is unconditional. You don’t have to thank me for something like that. In fact...I better thank you”. She closes the cabinet and smiles at her daughter, wheeling herself out and making her way to the door before Barbara inevitably takes over for her. “For what?”

“All the years of happiness. Every birthday where you blew out your candles. Every skinned knee I kissed. Every hug and every “I love you mommy”. She pats the girls hand as they move into the halls of the as of now empty Wayne Manor. “Those memories are gonna keep me warm when I’m old and you all abandon this nest and leave me and your dad to die”.

“Mom” Barbara laughs in amusement. “That’s never gonna happen”.

“Well you make sure of it sweetie. I wanna be surrounded by grandbabies like my mama when I go”.

Barbara blushes instantly, but she would be lying if the thought hadn’t crossed her mind. ‘You’re lucky Barbara. More than lucky. A one in a million shot to get you through this. Don’t screw it up’.

_“You’re damn right”_ her father says, still in her mind. _“You have no idea how many souls I’ve had to hop into and how many minds I’ve had to change and convince. Be a good girl Barbara. Like you were raised”._

She smiles to herself, keeping Jim Gordon’s continuing presence with her a secret.

It was beyond comforting to know her father never stopped looking out for her.

**_The Next Day, Gotham 1st Presybeterian_ **

Barbara was waiting in the room set aside for the bride, checking her makeup for the eighteenth time and ensuring that her dress was correct in as many aspects as possible. Her nerves were rapidly fraying, but she was held together by the circling presence of her mother, her aunts and her aging grandmother, who couldn’t stop crying whenever she saw her.

Elise looked quite regal in her stola and golden crown for sure, but the armed Amazons who had showed up in full gear, some looking quite out of shape in comparison to their state seven years prior, were what really drew eyes, or rather, prevented them from looking in. 

They formed a phalanx against the incursion of the press after all.

A knock on the door distracts her for a moment, and she smiles and turns, wanting to present an easygoing persona. “Come in…”.

The door opens, and she hears his voice before he fully enters, giving her enough time to rush up and slam it down, causing her fiancee to let out a loud “Owww!”.

“Jason!” she hisses, seeing that his foot was caught in the door, already feeling awful. “What the hell are you doing here? You know it’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding!”

“What? Don’t tell me you believe in that nonsense” he chides, though allowing her to close the door, forcing him to speak to her through the aged wood. “Uhh duh...I live in a world where I came back to life, aliens with lasers that shoot out of their eyes tried to take over the world, and a demon priest taught you how to be a knight of God or some crap, and you’re calling me insane for not believing in some superstition?”

She hears silence from the other end of the door, and thinks that perhaps he’d went away, but his chuckle following her words dissuades her of that. “I guess you’ve got a point there”.

She smiles, glad he understood. “You should listen to me more”.

“I should”.

She leans against the door, closing her eyes and smiling, stroking her hand against it and imagining that soon they’d be husband and wife. Together like always. 

“I bet you look gorgeous”.

She rolls her eyes, blushing even more which is a stark contrast between her and her white dress. “I look like a freckled redhead in a white dress” she bites back. “Yeah, but you’re my freckled redhead in a white dress”.

“Mmm...Jason...it’s not too late you know” she offers. “You can run. Wouldn’t blame you if you did”.

“I wouldn’t if I could” he says, leaning against the door as well. “I’m too in love with you to run Barbara. And I made a promise to your dad to protect you, way I see it? I should just continue doing that, and getting married would be a real easy way to make sure of it”.

“Jason….you...you don’t have to protect me dammit”.

“No...I want to. For the rest of my life Barbara Wayne” he says, shivering for a second. “Strang how your last name isn’t even gonna change huh? Tongues will wag”.

“Pfft, you’re not my brother Jason. Especially not after all the things we’ve done” she teases lavisciously through the door prompting a faux shocked reaction from the other side of the door. “My word...Miss Wayne! In a church?”

“Uhh ohh, I made an oopsie didn’t I? Guess you’ll have to punish me for it huh?”

“On our honeymoon yes” he says back. “Good. Jason...I love you so much. I promise to always be a good wife to you. Maybe not the best, because, well, let’s be realistic we all have flaws. But I’ll always love you”.

“I know Barb. I know”.

She was smiling ear to ear, the butterflies gone now. She could only imagine how they’d faced down death together so many times before. This was no different. They were a team, bond together at the very heart of who they were. 

“How’d you get past dad and Uncle Vic anyways?” she asks curiously, wondering how the new dark knight managed to slip one past the old dark knight. “Ohh, I got them to debate soy again. Uncle Harvey is convinced there’s nothing wrong with it and Uncle Vic and now Bruce are apparently against it so...yeah, they’re arguing about it at the altar”.

“Are you serious?”

“As a broken leg” he says back. “Mom and our aunts and nana tried to intervene but they got involved too. The vicar...I think? I don’t know, not Presybeterian, is involved too last I saw”.

“You don’t know and you’re the future professor of theology at Gotham University?” she chides. “I can forget things...uhh ohh...Bruce is coming. I better get back up there” he says, and Barbara nods though he can’t see it. “I’ll be there...Batman”.

“I’ll be waiting...Batwoman”. 

With that he walks off, and Barbara hears a disapproving grunt from Bruce who obviously knew what Jason had done. That was over soon enough though, and her dad knocks on the door. “Barbara? Sweetie, are you ready?”

She takes a deep breath and grasps the bouquet of flowers in her hands, opening the door and stepping out, smiling up at Bruce who was shocked by his little girl’s beauty. “Yeah dad. Let’s do this”. 

He smiles, recovering thanks to her usual bravado, and he offers her his arm which she takes within her own. “You look so beautiful Barbara. Like your mother”. At this point in her life, Barbara didn’t even associate that world with the former Barbara Gordon. Her mind instantly went to Harleen, the past now truly that. 

Past.

And now? She was beyond flattered. “Dad, I don’t look like mom”.

“Not on the outside no, though you’re still beautiful” Bruce says. “But your confidence, courage? That all comes from her”.

“I think you had a bit to do with that too dad” she chides. “Maybe, but I see so much of her in you it’s not a contest. I’m so proud of you Barb”. She looks up at him, and he stares back, her eyes searching for a sign of a lie, though she wouldn’t blame him if he was. She doesn’t see it though, and it became clear that he meant it. 

He was proud of her.

The wedding march begins to play and Bruce looks towards her one final time. “You ready?”

“Yes dad”.

They begin to walk, the entire crowd focused on the woman, making her suddenly feel like she was the center of attention for the whole world. She saw Commissioner Bullock seated besides Renee Montoya and Tatsu, little Eddy in the latters’ arms, smiling and waving at the woman who so often watched him when Renee was in her session. 

The Sage children were there, surprisingly well behaved as Elise watches over them, Alfred handling Martha and Mary. Mary was smiling ear to ear, waving as her sister marched down the aisle, though Martha was more reserved. She turned away, and that broke Barbara’s heart again. But...slowly, the young girl looks up and gives her sister a tight smile.

That was enough for now.

Barbara smiles back and quickly blows a kiss at her, winking alongside of it to make Martha roll her eyes and smile more honestly. ‘More than enough’. She looks towards Bruce and holds him tightly by the arm, not noticing as an unseen visitor to the wedding watches the proceedings. 

Jim Gordon shakes his head, watching the man lead his daughter down the aisle. _“Sorry buddy”_ the spectral figure says to himself, unheard by anyone else. _“We can share this moment”._

Just like that, he slips into Bruce, possessing the man for a moment. Barbara notices the shift, and knows exactly what is because of. Bruce...or rather Jim within Bruce, smiles widely at her and winks, bringing her to the steps that lead up to the altar where a calm and collected Jason was waiting. Everyone else was up there, with Harvey and Vic serving as Jason’s groomsmen, and Harleen, Dinah and Ivy as Barbara’s bridesmaids.

Bruce was to serve as Jason’s best man of course, which prompted a speedy exit from Deadman from the billionaire’s body. He didn’t care though, after all, he’d gotten to walk his daughter down the aisle. _“I wasn’t gonna miss out on that Barbara”._

Bruce shakes off the strange chill and feeling that had overtaken his bones and slowly steps up, still being quite weak and relying on his cane. He hands his daughter off to Jason, eyeing the man firmly. They’d had this talk, but they were at the very symbolic moment now. 

“You two take care of each other” he says solemnly, drawing agreement from both of them. Jason takes her hands in his own and steps so that they are standing right in front of one another before the vicar. He pulls the veil up over her face, revealing it to him and taking his breath away while Bruce moves to his position at his son’s side.

“Barbara…”.

“Worth the wait?”

He nods, unable to get the words out. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen” he says, causing her to let out a teary eyed laugh. “And you look good in a tux” she says back. The vicar begins to go over his religious rights, speaking at length about the vows of matrimony, but Jason and Barbara could only focus on one another, their eyes communicating all they needed to let the other know.

Their minds drift to where their real vows to one another had been made. All those years ago in the dirty alley behind the diner where her father had been murdered. The train yard that they’d taken shelter in. The rooftops of Gotham, where they’d found out what the word family truly meant. Sacrifice as well.

They are brought back by the deep booming baritone of the vicar, who enters into the final stage of the rights. More time had passed than either expected, and now they were on the edge, ready to step off together.

“Do you, Barbara Gordon-Wayne, take this man, Jason Todd-Wayne, to be your lawfully wedded husband, ‘till death do you part?”

“I do” she says without hesitation.

The older gentleman smiles and turns to Jason. “And do you, Jason Todd-Wayne, take this woman, Barbara Gordon-Wayne, to be your lawfully wedded wife, ‘till death do you part?”

He nods. “I do”.

“Then by the powers invested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride”. The organist pipes up, the service now officially ended and Jason and Barbara’s union cemented. All that is left is the kiss, and Jason eagerly takes his wife’s face in between his hands and passionately kisses her, perhaps a bit more passionately than the vicar had expected.

The crowd erupts into cheers as Barbara begins to cry, kissing her husband back for all he was worth now, her arms being thrown about his shoulders and her pressing her body into his. Jason too was overjoyed and he holds her tightly.

The two didn’t see, but a figure was watching them from the second floor pews, tucked into the shadows of the wall.

Jason Blood couldn’t stay away for this, finding it in his best interest to be here, though, he had brought a plus one, whose voice chimed out within his mind, a tone of disgust dripping from it’s tongue. “Ahh, in deepest hatred I hold this procession, for she hath plucked herself from hell’s possession. Her soul is saved and her race is won, I am angry for I had no fun”.

Jason could only smile at that sentiment, knowing that not only was Barbara physically safe, but her soul was as well, having been redeemed by her actions and undoubtedly going on to further do so. “Dumas was right” Jason says, watching the young couple advance back down the aisle, now officially married. “Jason saved one soul, and in doing so...he saved Gotham”.

“Stop your prattling Christ talk, you warmth and love sickens me, all it is, is a stupid walk”.

Jason watches them exit the church, Barbara taking the time to throw her bouquet of flowers back into the crowd, the bouquet being caught by Rosaleen Sage, the only daughter of Victor and Dinah Sage. She looks at it in horror and disgust, not having expected that at all and still being at the age where marriage and boys were disgusting. The entire family had a laugh at it, and Jason Blood descends back into the darkness, content that his pupil was safe. 

**_That Night, Gotham City_ **

She looked out over the city, the wind whipping against her face and the cowl being the only thing that prevented her hair from going all over the place. A figure was behind her instantly, and she knows who he is. Still, as a matter of habit, she turns and throws a fist, slow enough that he easily catches it.

Jason then pulls her into him, his hand going to her waist as he pulls her right into him. “You’re getting slow” he says, his breath impacting against her lips. She smiles and closes her eyes, trying to move closer but remaining just out of the reach of his lips, teasing him.

“Maybe that was all a set up and I’m just trapping you in another way”.

“That so?”

“Maybe…”.

Batman smiles and takes her lips forcefully, his hand moving to his wife’s rear and groping it ferociously through the fabric of her suit. She moans into his lips and pulls back, wanting to speak. “It’s a quiet night”.

“It is”.

She presses herself in closer to the man, wanting to ensure he felt her breasts. “How about we enjoy our wedding night Batman?”

“Sounds like a plan Batwoman”. 

He picks her up and moves over towards a stack of boxes, placing her atop one to begin kissing her, her hands moving to his utility belt and undoing it. “Are we..unff...leaving the masks on?” he asks, gaining the enthusiastic support for such a suggestion. “Yesss...it’s hotter”.

“Whatever you say then...Mrs. Wayne” he whispers against her, his hands undoing the hidden zipper of her suit and making her wince as his gloved fingers move over her bare flesh. She loved being called that, especially now when it had such a different meaning.

“F….that feels good” she moans, refusing to curse as Jason’s hand moves about her breast, gently stimulating her nipple. “Mmm...allow me to keep it up then” he says, lowering his mouth to the now exposed bud. 

“Ahhh…”.

Their lovemaking went unnoticed by Gotham City, which continued to go about its business as if nothing was out of the ordinary, in part thanks to the work of the two lovers now one, who took a moment to reflect upon the immense symbol they’d inherited. 

They wouldn’t let their predecessors down.

Gotham...still had a Batman and Batwoman.

**_Seven Years Later, Just Outside of Las Vegas Nevada_ **

“In other news, Wonder Woman foiled yet another jewel heist, this time in the Swiss Alps. It is said that the train was carrying priceless art and…”. Mary sighs and changes the station, unfortunately coming to yet another news report, though this time it was about another duo of heroes she knew well.

“Nightwing and Flamebird were spotted assisting in the rescue efforts in Haiti, pulling survivors from burning…”.

“Come on jeez, really?” the U.S air force fighter pilot asks for the eighth time, turning off the radio all together and focusing on keeping the sportscar she used on the road. It was empty this time of night, surprisingly cool as well, which was why she liked to go out for a drive at this time.

The desert...it gave her time to think.

“Dammit” she says, hating that she felt...jealous. Surrounded by heroes, people with powers and abilities? It made her want to rip her hair out now, though she would never take it out on them. She just wished she was special too. “Jason, Barbara, Martha, Konn’r and Clara...hell, even Rosaleen is a hero!” she thinks, remembering the day it was revered that the Sage’s daughter inherited her mother’s sonic scream. 

Now she was Black Canary, and Mary? She was just a pilot in the U.S military. She’d joined to make a difference, stand out perhaps in a world of capes and glitter but...here she was, stuck doing routine patrols over vast stretches of desert in her brand new F-46 Nightrider.

She turns back to the radio and sighs again, wishing she hadn’t worn her flight suit for this little ride as it certainly didn’t keep her warm. She was fiddling with the dial when a light from up above catches her attention. “Huh?” she ponders, knowing that the helicopter training course had been cancelled due to maintenance issues that night.

The light gets closer and closer however, and it becomes clear that it was on a downward trajectory. It was getting faster and faster as well, which gave her great cause for concern. The flaming object rushes over her car, mere feet above her before it smashes into the Nevada desert, sending up a massive plume of sand as it makes impact before continuing onwards.  
  
Mary stops the car and gazes after it, noticing something...odd about this meteor. It was metallic, and in fact, didn’t look like a meteor at all. It looked like a...ship of some kind.

“Ohh no...not another Kyrptonian” she thinks, knowing that she’d have to at least investigate. She puts the car into drive again and moves off the road, racing towards the crash site, consoling herself with the thought that at least the last two Kryptonians had been babies. ‘What could go wrong?’ she asks herself while stopping the car and opening the door, conceding mentally that indeed everything could go wrong.

She begins to rush towards the site, seeing that it was a rather rough landing. “God, I hope there are survivors” she says aloud, getting the fuselage which was still burning in some places. It was instantly odd to her as the ship, and it was clear that whatever it was, it wasn’t one she’d seen before, and being in the air force she knew what ships were what.

She’d didn’t even know where to start with identifying this one.

A door opens on the ship, and a figure, coughing as smoke envelops him from behind moves down the ramp, falling to the ground a few feet from the craft. “Ohh no..” she says, rushing forward to help the man who was wearing a green one piece suit. Blood covered his entire body, and it was clear that there were multiple wounds that were bleeding out.

She takes the man in her arms, lifting him up carefully to inspect him, further solidifying that he wasn’t human. He had a large forehead, an incredibly large forehead if she wasn’t going to be nice, and purple skin along with dark black hair and a mustache. He seizes her by the arm, looking up at her intently, studying her.

“Woah, woah buddy you’re gonna be okay!” she says. “I promise you’re gonna be…”.

He coughs up blood, and she realizes that she was lying. No matter the species or the planet, that wasn’t a good sign. He reaches down to his hand and pulls off a ring, throwing it into the air where strangely enough it floats, scanning her.

“Mary Wayne of Earth” it says in an ethereal voice, lowering itself onto her hand and placing itself on her ring finger, shocking her. “Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps”. She is shocked and doesn’t know what was happening. “What the hell?” she asks, moving to take the ring off before the alien man stops her. “My name...is Thaal Sinestro…..” he breaths out. “You wear a great responsibility Mary Wayne…”. He looks up towards the stars, smiling in his final seconds. “Fear….my….power…”.

With that, he dies in her arms, and Mary is left there alone with a crashed alien space ship and a strange ring which glows on her hand. She studies it, managing to keep a hold on the limp body of the self named Sinestro. “What the hell do I do now?” she asks, hoping the ring would talk.

It doesn’t though, and instead continues to glow. 

She shakes her head and looks up at the stars where Sinestro had been looking moments ago. “You had to open your big mouth Mary” she chides herself. “Now look what happened. You wanted to be special? Well….here. Special. Sitting in the Nevada sand with a dead alien and a strange ring” she says, shaking her head. “And talking to yourself apparently. I need to get to mom. She’ll know what to do”.

First though, she sets about burying the man’s body, happy that at least she had a name to put on the makeshift tombstone. “Fear my power” she repeats, pondering the man’s last words. “What does that mean?”


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so I'm tempted to make this the last chapter but....I had an idea for a very short chapter based in the future, focusing only on Barbara and Harleen in the Beyond Time frame. If you guys think we should end it here though, I'm game for that too :) If this is the last chapter...wow..all I can say is wow. This has been a ride huh? Holy crap,

**_Metropolis….5 Years Later_ **

Clara Luthor, also known as Nightwing, was tempted to use her laser vision. Sorely tempted. “Cheetah!” she shouts, trying to reach the woman who was clawing at her with an intent to kill, though she doubted it would work. “Snap out of it! This isn’t you”. She rushes forward, stopping the woman by placing her hands on her shoulders, keeping her in place.

It works for a second as the strength of the Kyrptonian hero was too strong to fight against, though Barbara Ann Minerva kept trying. “You will be assimilated Clara Luthor of Earth!” she says, though the voice carries a unique and distinctive far away quality that came undoubtedly from the starfish type creature that had attached itself to her face.

It’s single red eye glares out at Clara, sending a shiver up her spine.

Something manages to take her off her balance though as Hawkman, also under the control of the villain calling himself Starro, swoops down and hits her with his mace, sending her sprawling back into a car which dents in at the impact.

Clara is quickly trying to move to her feet, but is stopped as Hawkman’s wife Tora joins in, blasting her feet and arms with a wall of ice. Usually she’d be able to break through this easily, but John Constantine was there as well.

She was notoriously weak against magic. It had to be something unique to Kryptonian physiology, as it affected Konn’r less. It still affected him, but one a far lesser scale than it did to Clara.

John was there, whispering magical words that create some sort of viscous barrier around the ice, preventing her from breaking it, a starfish upon his face and that of his wife’s behind him.

Clara still continues to struggle though, only struggling even more as Vixen begins to walk forward, one of Starro’s starfish in her hand. The black supermodel smiles maliciously. “You’re going to love this Clara. It feels so good to be part of something so big”.

Clara herself wasn’t interested in being assimilated at all, and she was regretting holding back when it came to Cheetah. ‘Dammit Konn’r’ she thinks, placing all the blame on her boyfriend for making her “soft”.

It occurs to her that that might be her last conscious thought of her own volition, and she closes her eyes to ensure that it wasn’t. ‘I love you Konn’r. Even if you are a goody two shoes’.

Smoke suddenly fills the area, and the enslaved heroes cough as their view is obstructed. A black clad figure throws themselves against Constantine, punching the exorcist right in the face atop the starfish. It doesn’t dislodge the creature, but it does send the man to the ground, cancelling out his incantation.

Clara takes the opportunity granted to her and smashes her arm up out of the unreinforced ice, using her eyes to cut a way through the rest with her heat vision. She rises into the air and instantly dashes towards the sputtering Hawkman, grasping him by his harness and lifting him up into the air. “Sorry about this Carter”.

The Thanagarian is then used as a weapon, Nightwing using him to smack down all of the other heroes within close enough proximity, sending them flying through the air. This rapid flurry of movement also had the unintended consequence of clearing the smoke and revealing her savior.

Batman was there, trading blows with Vixen who clumsily tried to attack the man, the starfish still in her hand. She reaches up and tries to implant it, though she’s stopped by the Dark Knight’s grip on her wrist. She summons, or rather Starro summons, control of her strength, and begins to turn the tide.

“You’ll be like us Batman!” she shouts out, the man grunting as the creature gets closer and closer, it’s legs splayed out in excitement and its mouth, if it could be called that, open, ready to latch onto the man’s own.    
  
Jason tries to fight back, pushing against the woman with all his might, but she was too strong. ‘Fighting the might of the Savannah isn’t for me’ he thinks before the starfish is suddenly shout out of the woman’s hand by a bolt of red energy.    
  
Mari winches, her hand partially scorched by the beam from Nightwing who follows it up by delivering another hardy punch to her face, knocking her back at least twenty feet into a brick wall. 

Batman looks after her and steadies himself, turning his gaze upon the younger woman who’d used too much force in his opinion. She shrugs in response. “What? She’ll be okay”.

He looks back to indeed see that Vixen was already on her feet once more, unsteady, but alive. “Dammit” Clara says to herself, trying to think as the others she had just incapacitated rise as well. She and Batman back up, covering each other’s side though it was more symbolic in Jason’s case.

The heroes were now arrayed against them once more, and the two raise their fists, ready to fight to the bitter end.

  
“Any bright ideas?” Nightwing asks, as Jason provides no answer, simply glaring back at the group of friends who weren’t exactly themselves at that moment. “Jeez, hope your girlfriend is doing better with the big one”.

“Shut up and fight” Jason says, just in time to avoid a blast of ice from Tora, reaching into his belt and retracting a batarang, chucking it right at Hawkman’s hand, cutting his thumb and forcing him to drop his mace. 

“The heat vision” he calls out, suddenly thinking of something. Clara only partially hears him as Cheetah once more pounces. She catches the woman by the waist and throws her into the ground, just barely dodging a shot from her husband who hangs back with Killer Frost, his second wife.

“What about it?” she asks, using said skill to melt the unmasked Deadshot’s rifle. 

“Can you use it on the others? It seemed to have an effect?”

Batman was now engaged once more with Vixen who manages to use her claws and scratch open the chest of his suit. “Ahhh!” he screams out in pain, not wanting to go full throttle against the woman as he would with any other Gotham street thug. They were his friends first and foremost.

“Without melting their faces off? No way!” Clara shouts back, blowing out a forceful wind that stops Killer Frost’s daggers of ice in mid air, sending them back at her and Deadshot, forcing them to duck. 

“Great”.

“Hey, it isn’t my fault….ohhh Rao…”.

A shadow was above them suddenly, and they both look up to see Giganta, her foot raised to come down upon the two heroes. Batman turns to her and shouts one word, “MOVE!”

Both dart to the side just in time to avoid the giantess’s fatal attack. When they look up they see that the Starro attached to her face must’ve inherited her powers and grown along with her, as it was now massive, though definitely not as large as the one who seemed to be in control of all of the others.

The massive redhead is about to bring down her foot for another assault, and Clara readies herself to launch in the air to attack when something shoots out from between a building and wraps about her legs multiple times, bringing them closer and closer together. 

The woman begins to hobble, trying to stay up and in natural clumsy Giganta fashion, reaches down to try and undo what was obstructing her. This causes her to loose her balance and fall forward, her face smashing into a large pool of water that Metropolis had built to dedicate to the memories of those lost during the Justice League’s regime.

It was based on the one in Washington funnily enough.

Giganta falls directly into it, and yet the thing keeping her legs bound only winds tighter, a torso stretching into the air. “Sorry Giganta..” Plastic man says sadly before looking out to the side of the pool. “NOW JEFFERSON!”

Black Lightning steps out onto the green and raises his hands, shooting out sparks of lightning from his fingertips, turning the pool into an electrically charged zone which sizzles with energy. “DON’T OVERDO IT!” Plas shouts out, not wanting his wife hurt but wanting her unable to hurt anyone else. 

The woman had originally been trying to get out of the pool, but now she writhes in pain as the voltage goes through her due to the water, shocking her and causing the massive Starro to begin to shrink, itself screaming in pain. It falls off of her face, sliding into the water and disintegrating upon impact, electricity apparently being a weakness of the creature.    
  
Slowly Gigant shrinks back to normal size, and moaning in pain as her husband picks her up and cradles her body into his arms. “I’m sorry sweetie. So sorry”. He caresses her cheek and brings her closer to the group, with Black Lightning rushing up behind. 

“Thanks for the assist lightning”.

“No problem” the former criminal says simply, looking away from the group and leaving Clara to hold off the others with another massive blast of breath. It doesn’t hold them long, and soon they were back at it again, though moving much more methodically this time around.

“They’re up to…”.

A stream of Starros are thrown into the air, all screeching with glee as they make their way down towards the remaining heroes. “Ohh shi…”.

Clara was firing with her beams as quickly as possible, taking many out, but the number alone made it impossible to prevent all of them from landing. Black Lightning, Plastic Man and Giganta all have one fall upon their bodies, the creatures instantly moving up towards their faces.

Jefferson tries to shock it off, but it doesn’t work, and it latches onto his face. He struggles for a moment, but it quickly asserts its control as the same thing happens to Plastic Man and Giganta, the flexible man slowly letting his wife down.

“Well this sucks” Clara says, ready to fight it out to the end once more, having gone one step forward and two back. Batman remains quiet, his mind moving to the other team that was undoubtedly dealing with their own problems.

‘It’s up to you Barb’.

**_Star City_ **

“DAMMIT BATWOMAN!”

Martha was facing the same issue that had unknowingly plagued Nightwing, busily fighting someone she really didn’t want to hurt. Wonder Woman brings up her shield, deflecting another series of batarangs that clang against it just before the redhead throws herself at her, somehow managing to sweep her leg out and take Martha off of it.

Martha was quick though, and she moves to the side while Barbara tries to bring her foot down upon her face. “I know you’re in there” she shouts back, punching against the woman’s shoulder, though she barely uses any force and even still it has no effect, the woman’s pain threshold having been increased tenfold by Starro.

Speaking off, the creature stood upon its lower legs, towering over the city mocking it with its one eye gaze. It was enthralled, watching the enslaved Flamebird fighting the Green Lantern before it, treating this as nothing more than a gladiatorial battle for his honor.

“Konn’r stop it!” Mary shouts petulantly, bringing up her ring and encasing the man in green energy. Flamebird just smirks under, having no intention of doing that. Mary’s face fixes in grim determination, and she mentally apologizes to the young man as he breaks out, shattering her construct and sending her back a few feet in the air.   
  
“Sorry Konn’r” she says, getting ready to use her ring again. 

_ “It’s all about willpower Poozer” Kilowog says, circling around the trainee who was shooting beams of green energy at moving targets. “Where there’s will, there’s a way. Isn’t that a saying on your little mudball?” _

She grasps the man tightly with yet another construct, this time a catcher’s mitt, and slams him into the ground as hard as possible, creating a massive crater. She backs it up by summoning a green jackhammer that continues to slam him into the Earth.

  
She was very thankful that he was half Tamaranian, otherwise? He wouldn’t have even been phased.

Martha was still fighting below, Barbara managing to cut her black biker jacket she wore over the armor of Wonder Woman. She wouldn’t lie, she took a lot of inspiration from her Aunt Dinah on style. “Bitch” she calls out, catching one of Barbara’s fists in her hand and bringing her booted foot up, kicking her in the side. 

Barbara, even while under Starro’s control, lets out a gasp of air, not having been expecting that in the slightest. She shoves her back and draws her lasso of truth, wrapping it about her older sister and pulling it tight, compelling her to stay still. 

“Batwoman...Barbara” she whispers, her face falling as she wants to reach her sister. “Can you hear me?”

“Barbara isn’t here. It is only Starro now” the redhead says back. “You should consider this an improvement Martha Wayne” it chuckles, knowing everything due to being in the woman’s brain. “Your sister...gone. Sacrificed to something greater”.

Martha’s eyes narrow in rage, and she pulls the lasso tighter, refusing to acknowledge this fact. “She will be returned to us”.

“No, you will be delivered to Starro, and used for all purposes. I will make an army, from your flesh and the flesh of those I shall create with those gifted to me. You will forget you ever knew your sister, let alone hated her”.

“I don’t hate her”.

“Don’t you?” Starro asks through Barbara, knowing that he was digging in deep now. “She thinks you do. She would cry sometimes when nobody was looking about how you wanted her gone. How you wished she’d never returned”.

This hurt, but hearing it from a twisted version of Barbara’s voice hurt even more. Martha’s face fell once more. “I love Barbara….she knows it. I just...I looked up to her so much. Barbara...if you can hear, please listen. You’re always going to be my big sister. I was just a confused and angry little girl and maybe that’s bled out over the years” she admits guiltily. 

“But I never stopped seeing you as my big sister. Everything I am is because of you, I wanted to be you for Olympus sake. I won’t let you end here. I promise”.

“How are you going to stop Starro?” the creature mocks. “I am all! I am everything! I am Starro!” Barbara then begins to laugh uproariously, enjoying his supposed victory. The laugh echoes out, first from the giant creature, and then from the people it had overtaken. The entire city moves out to face the two remaining heroes, all sporting starfish on their faces.

“Mary...we got a...urrkkk!”

Flamebird had moves up from the pit and was now grasping the woman by the throat while Mary looked on in horror, ready to fight it out to save Martha. Martha holds up a hand to stop her though, knowing it was pointless to try and save her. “The….starfish!” she gasps out, pointing out at the massive Starro. Barbara meanwhile gets loose from the lasso, and picks up a mini Starro that had slithered towards her.    
  
Without hesitation she brings it to Martha’s face, ready to add yet another conquest. “You will be with me Marth. Forever”.

The usage of Barbara’s voice in such a manner, especially when it wasn’t her own, sets Wonder Woman off, and she slams her fist into Konn’r’s face, forcing him to let go of her as she continues the fight. Martha picked up the stunned Flamebird before he had a chance to fight back and he finds himself slammed into the ground once more.

Mary was flying right up to the creature that was behind all of this though, taking him out being the only way to stop it. The sound of resumed combat rings in her ears, and she comes eye to eye with Starro while her sister fights off all of Star City. It was a losing battle, but one that Martha was willing to fight to give her sister a chance to end all of this.

“How can you hope to beat me weakling? You are one human? I am eons! I am eternity! I am Starro!” the creature booms out, and Mary raises her hand and her arm, pointing the ring directly at the creature’s eye. “Yeah, heard ya before. You say that alot”.

She was filled with doubt. This would be their last chance, or the entire world would fall to Starro, and after that? More would follow.

Could she do this?

_ “Heard you made it through final selection” Kilowog says, having been waiting outside of the guardians’ chamber for his pupil. “I did” she shrugs happily as if it was no big deal. The alien smiles despite himself, enjoying that fact about her.  _

_ “Alright, don’t get too cocky. You ain’t too special”. _

_ “I know, still...thank you” she said sincerely.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “For what?” _

_ “Training me. Putting up with me” she admits. “I know I made a lot of mistakes and if you had hair” she teased, rubbing his head while reaching up to the massive alien. “I would’ve made you rip it out. But you didn’t give up on me...so, thanks”. _

_ The Green Lantern trainer was touched and it showed, but he quickly wiped it away, not wanting to appear weak. “Yeah well, you did a lot of it yourself” he says vaguely before deciding to be a little more inspirational. He pats the woman on the shoulder and fixes her with his stare. _

_ “Always remember that if you made it through me, you got the right to sit with the best of the best. Ain’t nothin’ you can’t do. Always remember who you are Mary. A badass with willpower. And one man...or woman” he corrects, “with the will? They can save the day. Always remember our oath. In brightest day…”. _

“In blackest night” Martha picks up now, starring intently at the creature who regarded her curiously, expecting her to bow to his might. Now, Starro was confused. “Let no evil escape my sight” she continues, the ring glowing stronger and stronger, indeed stronger than any had seen it before. “Let those who worship, evil’s might…..beware my power, GREEN LANTERN’S LIGHT!”

With one final shout, Mary focuses all of her willpower into one last burst of energy, which shoots out of her ring with an intensity the alien wasn’t ready for. It screams in pain, echoing and magnifying said scream through all of its puppets who grasp their heads in pain, clawing at the starfish. Mary continues to focus the beam which now pierces through the outer lens of Starro’s eye. She continues on, increasing the intensity and beginning to sweat.

“Fear my power...asshole…”.

  
It gets worse and worse for the alien invader, who finds that he can’t even move as the beam of willpower made manifest tendrils out and shackles his legs put as the beam moves in deeper and deeper. With one last scream of pain, the creature explodes in a rain of gore, spraying out over everyone and breaking the psychic communication it had with the others.

All around the world, people are freed from Starro’s influence, the dead and dying starfish sliding from their faces and slowly disintegrating on the ground. Back in Metropolis, Batman and Nightwing watch as the doom they were facing is stopped, and their friends returned to normal.

“I guess your girl is pretty badass” Clara says happily, dusting herself off joking and acting as if she wasn’t afraid. Jason remains silent, standing up straight and pocketing his batarang. ‘All the Waynes are’.

The beam meanwhile slowly dies off, and Mary is panting with exertion, sweat falling off of her in rivers. She is about to fall to the ground when she’s caught by Flamebird, himself still shaking off the effects of Starro. “Woah..got ya Lantern”.

“Thanks…” she says, still trying to catch her breath as she is brought to the ground. “No problem. You okay?” he asks, allowing her to stand now. She almost stumbles but she manages to stay upright. “Yeah...I’m fine”.

Martha is instantly on her, making sure she was okay and speaking at a million miles a minute, her smile wide and honest. “Ohh gods GL! That was awesome! You screwed him up good!” she says while Batwoman moves up behind both of them, a much more reserved smile on her lips. “Good work. Both of you” she says adding a quiet, “I’m proud of you” as there were civilians about, dazed civilians of course, but still civvies.

Martha turns to her older sister, reaching out and grabbing her shoulder. The revelations of what she had heard on Barbara’s mind were too much, but she didn’t know how to approach the subject. The past few years had been characterized by avoidance but this close call? It put an end to that.

“Batwoman...we...I...we need to ta…”.

“No need Wonder Woman” she says, being much more like Bruce as Batman than her mother was as Batwoman, though she makes an exception this time and places a hand on Wonder Woman’s shoulder. “I know” with a wink she begins to move off, leaving the scene to allow Flamebird and Wonder Woman to handle the situation with the press. 

She’d be much warmer later, but while in the suit? She was all business.

Martha smiles after her sister who makes her way to the secondary batwing, hidden amongst the ruins of the city. She goes over her words to her sister, how all she ever wanted to be was her. She meant it...and she still meant it. 

As the batwing rockets off into the sky, and the crowds stare up and point she realizes how lucky she is to have so many people around her to inspire her. For now though? They had clean up duty. A seniority thing she guessed. 

Also...Barbara had to be home by three. 

“Mary?” she says to her sister, taking the other woman aside. “Uhhmm?”

“We still have that thing at the Manor tonight don’t we?”

“Well mom said that interplanetary invasions don’t count as an excuse to miss dinner. Plus, it is Alfred’s birthday” she adds. “Good. You still bringing that boyfriend of yours?” Mary blushes at the reminder that she was bringing her boyfriend of a few months over to meet her family for the first time, and all tiredness from the fight instantly melts away.

“Ohh no…”.

“Don’t worry” Wonder Woman says. “Compared to this, introducing him to dad should be less scary”. Mary was skeptical about that and makes her thoughts known with an upturned eyebrow. “Are you kidding?” she asks. “I’d rather fight a million of those things than bring him to meet dad”.

**_That Night, Wayne Manor_ **

“Is everything set up?” Harleen asks Jason who nods, still wearing the apron he had donned while cooking. “Yup. We got all of his favorites all lined up”.

“Good. Damn sweetie...time passes so quickly” Harleen moans as her son pushes her down the corridor to the dining room where the party was to be held. “I know mom”.

“I’m real proud of ya puddin’ pop. You know that right?”

“You tell me all the time mom” Jason says good naturedly. “Good. Never let me forget it. Ohh the guests will be here soon so maybe ditch the apron” she points out, reminding him that he still had it on. “Ohh right, when I go back to the kitchen. I hope he likes it”.

“Of course he will! Stop doubtin’!”

“Is Jason doubting again?” Elise asks, coming out from a side room escorted on either side by Nubia and Artemis. All had aged, but none more than the Queen herself whose hair had gone totally grey and her skin being quite wrinkled. 

“My queen don’t exert yourself so…”.

“Shhh Nubia. I ain’t dead. Just old” she says with a smile, her spirit not being dampered at all. “Mom...how…”.

“Stop” Elise says, moving towards her daughter. “I’m fine”.

The woman in the wheelchair smiles good naturedly. “Alright. Is he distracted?”

“Yup. I’ve got my top man working on it” Elise supplies, just as the doorbell rings. “I’ve got it” Jason says, removing the apron and rolling it up in his hands, moving to the front door. He opens it and sees the Dent family, all smiling wide to see him. “Hey Jason” Harvey says while reaching out his hand. “Uncle Harvey, Aunt Pamela...kiddos! Come on in. You guys know this is home to you. How is everything?” he asks.

“Well, aside from being taken over by some starfish thing? Not too bad. Still wasn’t gonna let that get in the way of our little shindig tonight” Pamela says, kissing her nephew’s cheek. “Red!” Harleen shouts down the hall happily. “Noticing some more grey hairs, even from all the way down here”.

The half plant woman smiles and moves down the hall to join her friend. “Well, at least your eye sight isn’t going with spending all your time behind a computer you old bat” she teases right back, leaning down to hug the woman.

“Is that Pammy?!” a voice from upstairs shouts.    
  
“Yes Dinah. It’s me. What are you doing?” Mrs. Dent shouts back up as Harleen the younger and Harvey Jr. join their mother. “Well, look at you two! So grown up. Harleen, what are ya doin’ with yourself?”.

The young woman hugs her aunt and godmother tightly, wearing a pantsuit of all things. “I’m in my second year of law school aunt Harley, though you already know that. You never forget anything”.

“This girl is gonna be a supreme court justice one day” Harvey says, taking his arm and placing it around his daughter’s shoulders. “And this one? Well, he wants to be the next Evil Knieval” he says in regards to his younger son. “Ahh, motorcycles huh?” Harleen asks, causing the boy to shrug.    
  
“Over my dead body” Ivy says, refusing to let her son put himself in harm’s way for entertainment.

“Ahh let the boy live a bit!” Dinah says, coming down the stairs. “He’s my godson so I got a say too. Kids! Come on down!” she shouts prompting the sound of rustling as the group all jostles their way to the bottom stairs. All were well dressed, and bringing up the rear was Bruce, the quiet, mild mannered one in the group.

Harleen the younger blushes and looks away, trying to play it cool and avoid eye contact with him. “Heya greenie” Rosaleen says, the new Black Canary enveloping her friend in a hug. “What’s with the pantsuit?” she asks, herself wearing jeans and a sweater. 

“I guess I like it” she defends. “Makes me feel official”.

“I think it looks nice” Bruce Sage says with a smile, causing the woman’s blush to go into overload. “Ohh..well...thank you Bruce. Very sweet of you”. Elise, Harleen and Dinah share a look of mirth while Ivy glares at Bruce a bit, liking the boy a lot but being very protective of her daughter.

Jason is about to move away from the door when the bell rings again, and with a sigh he turns to let in Renee and Tatsu, Eddie walking in behind them. “Hola Jason” Renee says, pecking his cheek while Tatsu bows and smiles, repeating her own greeting in Japanese. “Konichiwa”. She then kisses the boy’s cheek as well.

“Well, hello to you two as well” he says before smiling at Eddie who shyly hides behind his mother’s legs. “Eddie boy! How’s it going bud?” he asks, putting out his hand. “Gonna give me five?”

“Hi Jason. Sure” Eddie says, high fiving the man up in the air. “Now down low”.

He repeats the action again. “One in the middle?”

He raises his hand to go in for yet another, but just as it’s about to make contact, Jason pulls it back, narrowly avoiding it. “Too slow!’.

The boy laughs, as do his mothers, Tatsu having long put the Katana identity behind her to assist in running Renee’s flower ship. “Go on in guys. Mingle. Party is only missing a few people” he says, closing the door again. A knock emanates out as soon as he does so, and exasperatedly he opens it. “Who el...ohh...Barb. Sweetie” he says, the woman moving into the manor in her work clothes.

Well, her day job clothes.

“Jason” she teases, kissing her husband and placing her hands on his shoulders. “Detective Barabra Wayne” he says back. “I’m sorry I’m late. Bullock had me work a case real quick and as usual it turned into…”.

He silences her with another kiss. “It’s okay. I got everything ready. Midterms are over anyways so you know my work load is light”.

She smiles up at him, caressing his cheek. “Did you get Alfred’s presents ready?” she asks. “Yup, all ready for him. Boy is he gonna be surprised we put all this up for him”.

“He’ll love it sweetie. I’m sure. Hey...where’s dad?” 

“He had to go do something with Uncle Vic and Martha went with him after they got cleaned…”. The door goes off again and Jason exhales a breath and glares at the wooden barrier. “I’m going to start drawing a salary for being the designated doorman”. 

  
She nuzzles her nose against his and removes her jacket, placing it on the hook by the door before unclipping her badge and placing it in the pocket. Her sidearm was already locked up in a case out of the house. She never used it, just keeping it for appearances. “Well, at least you can take over for Al when he finally retires” she teases, moving off to join the rest of the group. 

“Ha. Ha”.

He opens the door and reveals Bruce, Vic, Martha and Mary standing there. Bruce had aged as well, his hair having gone mostly grey and he still walked with a cane. “Well, come on in. The house is packed” Jason says, letting in the last few missing members of his family. 

“Is everything ready Jason?” Bruce asks sternly, having wanted to oversee everything himself but not having had the opportunity to. Before Jason can close the door or answer the man’s question, a voice calls out. “Jason wait! Don’t close the door!”

“At least she caught me before I did…” he mumbles, opening it back up to let his redheaded sister and a redheaded man surprisingly enough into the building. “Thanks bro” she says, kissing his cheek and deciding to introduce the man to her brother before the much harder task of their father and uncles. 

The man steps forward and smiles, reaching out his hand, a hand which Jason takes firmly, testing his handshake. “Hello Mr. Wayne. I’m Warren McGinnis. Mary’s boyfriend”.

The entire house seems to stop at that and Bruce eyes the man with cold eyes. Vic and Harvey do the same, being protective of any outsider coming near any of the girls. “Well, nice to meet you Warren” Jason says evenly, not wanting to be rude as he studies the man who seemed calm and confident, while Mary was a nervous wreck.

“I read your book on the Islamic Invasions of Spain. Utterly fascinating work” he says, surprising Jason. “You did?”

“Yeah. Well I’ve read most of your books, though I have to admit I couldn’t get through your book on the Crimean War. A little dry”. Mary winces at the faux paus, but Jason laughs, admiring the honesty. “Yeah, it wasn’t one of my best works. Let’s just say I was...distracted while writing it”.

Bruce takes this moment to step forward and butt in, looking at the man intensely. He reaches out his hand, and Warren takes it, being much more intimidated of this man than he was of Jason. “Hello Mr. Wayne. My name’s Warren McGinnis”.

Bruce grips the hand firmly. “And you’re the one who’s dating my daughter”.

“Yes sir” Warren says, making a decision to be firm. “Not many men would be happy dating someone as strong as her. How do you feel about her being a fighter pilot?” he asks, making Mary want to explode in embarrassment.

“I think it’s great to be honest” Warren says, the two men not having let go of the handshake yet, a mini pissing contest unfolding right before everyone’s eyes. “I’m not intimidated by her job or how strong she is if that’s what you’re asking. In fact it’s part of what I like about her”.

Bruce glares, trying to get a fix on the man. “And what do you do?”

“Biological engineering” he says. “I’m working on rewriting the human genetic code to develop an immunity to diseases”.

“Sounds unethical”.

“It’s not” he says. “I draw the line at changing us into anything that makes us less than human. I want to save lives, not become a Doctor Frankenstein”.

That answer appeases Bruce though he doesn’t let it show. He does relax his grip though, and nods to himself. “Tell me, are you employed?”

“Yes, at Powers Industries”.

“Perhaps you’ll come and work for Wayne Enterprises instead” Bruce says. “I’ve seen your work already. I like it”.

Warren was taken off guard by this, not realizing or at least not thinking that the man might’ve done some research on him beforehand but smiling nonetheless. “I think I’d like that. Mr. Powers is…”.

“An arrogant blowhard who seeks nothing more than his own enrichment” Bruce says, finally smiling. “I’m glad we agree”. Warren laughs aloud and pulls a relieved Mary closer. “Your dad is a laugh riot Mary. I don’t know why you were worried”.

“Yeah..hehe..why was I even worried?” she asks herself, rolling her eyes and realizing that she still had every reason to be worried. Harleen wheels herself upwards, smiling at the man. “Hiya! Mary’s mama. Hurt her and we’ll all tie you to a tree and take turns beatin’ ya!” she says, the whole room agreeing. Warren gulps but smiles nonetheless. “I...don’t think I’ll be hurting her in any way then”.

“Good. Welcome to Wayne Manor! Now, everyone into the dining room. It’s time for Alfred’s surprise!” she shouts, the whole group trucking into the room at the side, all engrossed in their own little worlds. Bruce turns to Martha, beginning to discuss certain new Wayne Enterprises financial ventures, considering she would one day be CEO.

Warren turns to Mary and kisses her cheek. “I really like your family”.

“Huh?” she asks shocked. “They just threatened to tie you to a tree and beat you if you hurt me” she asks. “I know. That’s how families should be. I wish mine was like that”.

“Well give it enough time Warren” Jason interjects. “And it will be. Because you’ll be in ours” he teases, making Mary blush like mad. “But yeah...hurt her? And I’ll add a baseball bat. My mom taught me how to swing and trust me, she’s really good at using a bat. Remember that. So...tell me about what you thought of my other books?”

**_Ten Minutes Later_ **

Everyone is huddled around the table, the lights turned off as they hide themselves as best as they could. Harleen looks down towards her phone and presses send on the text. “Alright, they’re on the way everyone. Be as quiet as possible will ya?”

She doesn’t get an answer as naturally, they were all being quiet, but Bruce was standing beside her and he reaches out to take her hand, smiling as she squeezes it. In what felt like hours, footsteps can finally be heard outside the door, and in another moment, the door to the dining room opens.

Alfred steps in, though there was something in his arms. 

Jason and Barbara were positioned on either side of the door, and at seeing the man enter Jason flicks on the lights, prompting everyone to shout “SURPRISE!”

“My word!” Alfred says with a smile, looking out over the room and then turning his attention to the little boy in his arms who squeals in excitement, giggling at seeing all of his family members there. “All of this is for you little Master Wayne!” he coos, reaching a finger up to tickle his great grandson whose eyes moved out over his loved ones and then settled on the massive chocolate cake at the center of the table.

“Alfie!” Barbara calls out and the little boy bounces in his grandfather’s arms at his mother’s voice. “Mama!” he calls out. Jason joins her quickly enough, and as he is handed off to the redhead, he giggles again. “Daddy. This for me?” he asks simply, looking out over the procession again.

“Yes it is slugger. All yours!” he says as Barbara holds him close and peppers him with kisses. “Happy birthday my little prince!”

Bruce and Harleen move up as well, everyone queuing in behind them to get a glimpse and moment with the birthday boy. “Nana! ‘Anpa!” he says, still unable to say grandpa. “Ohhhhh...I know he’s your little boy but give him here! His nana wants him!” Harleen says, forcing Harleen to hand the little boy off to her mother as he bounces in her lap. “Nana! Mommy..says...this for me!”.

She nuzzles his nose. “Yup! All yours, all day!”

“Yayyyy!”

Bruce slowly moves down, hugging his grandson as well. “Happy birthday Alfred” he says. “Thank you ‘anpa. Love you” he says before turning and looking at everyone. “Love you all”.

A collective “Awwwww” is heard throughout the room, and Jason plucks the boy up, moving towards the head of the table where a chair outfitted with a few pillows to keep him more upright was waiting for him. “We got your favorite buddy! For dinner!”

“Grannas’ pancakes!” he says as the savory meal is placed in front of him and the rest of the family takes their seats, getting ready to delve into the little boy’s favorite, breakfast for dinner. Elise and Alfred take their turn with the boy, rubbing his shoulders and head as he shovels a forkful of the syrup covered treat into his mouth, chewing cutely. “Yup! Great grandma made them special for you sweetie” Elise says.

“A very special treat indeed”.

Jason and Barbara get down on either side of him and at the same time kiss his cheeks, making him giggle. Luckily, the unscripted moment is caught on camera as Dinah stands up and takes a picture. 

In later years, that picture would hang on the walls for many years to come, and every generation of Wayne’s would pass by it, just one of the many happy times they’d shared together.

One in a full sea.

**_A Few Hours Later_ **

Bruce was looking up at the portrait of his parents that hung in his office, something he usually did when the mood took him. Right now, it was happy, and he smiled at them. “I like this Warren McGinnis” he says. “He makes her laugh. A bit of a goofball. Could be good for her”.

Laughter emanates from down the hall where the party was still going strong, though Alfie had gone to sleep, being exhausted after opening so many presents. Elise and Alfred, being tired out from the activity as well, had retired. 

Jason and Barbara tucked their son in and returned to the party, though as usual the two couldn’t go a half an hour without rushing up to check on him.

“Little Alfred is growing up so fast. The years go by quickly, too quickly…..I’m old” he laments before smiling. “But happy. Very happy. I miss you still….even after all these years. But I’m happy. And I don’t feel guilty for being happy now. I understand”.

He looks up at the unmoving visages of his parents and gets lost in thoughts until he’s pulled out of it by Harleen who wheeled herself to the door to gather him. “Puddin’. You okay?”

He turns and nods. “Yes Harley. Perfect”.

She takes stock of the situation but realizes that Bruce’s mood was much lighter than it was at other times she had come here to find him with his parents. “Well...if you’re not too busy, Dinah says she and Vic can beat us at a trivia game. I wanna kick their butts. You in?”

“With you?” he asks, hobbling towards the door and taking the back of his wife’s wheelchair, ready to bring her back to the dining room. “Always”. He kisses her cheek and they leave his study, being taken into the warm light and laughter of their friends and family. 


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I present to you, the epilogue :3

**_Neo Gotham 30 Years Later_ **

Commissioner Barbara Gordon-Wayne drove her new Fox-Wayne Saber through the streets of Neo Gotham with ease, still trying to figure out the car that felt less like a car and more like a spaceship. 

“Dammit…” she says, a bell going of to reveal that she had a phone call. She looks at the screen in the middle of the dashboard and smiles at seeing who it was. Clicking the button, she connects the call, and the voice of her sister breaks through. “Hey Barb”.

“Martha. How are you doing?”

Martha looked tired, haggard even, and her hair had a few traces of grey in it. Barbara’s had gone completely grey and she didn’t even fight it anymore, preferring to “age with dignity”. She wore it in a tight bun which allowed for easy movement, which the police commissioner did a surprising amount of in her day to day life. She wore a pair of slacks, nice dress shoes and a black sweater over which her holster was placed.

“Tired…” Martha admits. “Lots of things going on with the Society right now. Long story short? I think Konn’r is going to replace me as team leader”.

“Ohh Martha, sweetie...I’m sorry” Barbara says honestly as the woman shrugs. “Hey, it happens. I’m getting older. Plus, him and Clara? I trust them. I love Giganta 2 but...she’s a little too much like her father you know?”

“I get it...I get it. How’s everything going with that guy you were seeing? Steve...something?”

“Trevor” Martha says, enjoying how her sister was pretending to to forget.“And yeah, it’s going fine. He uhh...well...he asked me to marry him” she says, causing Barbara to smile wide. “Ohh yeah? What did you say?”

Martha hems and haws, still obviously thinking it over. “It’s just...well, I feel like I’m too old now for that. I mean what, get married and do what after? I’m not gonna have kids, not now and this job...it’s not a clock in, clock out kinda thing. I don’t know”.

“Neither does he Martha” she reminds. “Air force general? It’s not exactly easy. Take it from someone who bears the burden of command” she smirks. “Some companionship could be good for you”.

“Yeah, maybe. Anyways, how’s Harleen doing with her bid for mayor?” Martha asks, wanting to change the subject.

“Pfft...shoe in. Her and Bruce are gonna be moving into the mayoral mansion soon enough. Turns out she’s just as popular with the last name Sage as she is as a Dent”.

The two sisters share a laugh at that, going over and making small talk about their family, making them quite sad as they realize how many were gone. “It’ll be five years since Aunt Pam and Uncle Harvey died in that car accident huh?”

“Yeah...I miss them. Uncle Vic too”.

“Cancer is a hell of a thing sweetie” Barbara says. “But at least Aunt Dinah is still kicking around. She’s got everyone looking out for her. How about Renee and Tatsu? They okay?”

“Renee is fine” she says, turning onto the street that leads off to the manor, beginning to ascend the hill. “So is Tatsu. Just two old ladies spending their days on the flower shop”.

“Hmm...and Jason? You guys still good?”

Barbara smiles down at her ring finger to see the wedding band she’d scarcely taken off in the past thirty seven years of marriage. “Still the love of my life yeah”.

“Lucky to have found someone like that Barb”.

“You don’t have to tell me twice sis…” she smiles, parking the car and deciding to finish her conversation with her sister. Life taught her many things, and first and foremost was that you don’t always have all the time in the world. The graveyard she was looking at, far off on the Manor grounds was proof of that.

She began to cry a bit, looking at the tombstones that were now, having been added to greatly over the years. Alfred Pennyworth and Elise Quinzel, Victor Sage, the Dents and even Nubia and Artemis, the two Amazonian warriors who now stood an eternal guard over their queen.

“You okay?”

She’s brought back to her conversation with Martha and she wipes her eyes, not wanting to appear weak. “Yeah...yeah I’m fine. Just...yeah”.

“I know. I get that way too when I come over. Mary and Warren came with me last time. Terry and Matt too. Hey...how is Terry doing with uhh...you know?”  
  


“Ahh, yeah. Terry is a good kid” Barbara says as her mind goes to her nephew who had taken over from her husband after years of being Robin. “Really filling out the cape himself so to speak”.

“I haven’t seen the new suit. It doesn’t still have a cape right? So 2010”.

“Haha..no, we ditched the cape. Now it’s just a highly advanced piece of hardware that Alfred is constantly tweaking”. Barbara’s mind goes to her son who himself couldn’t become Robin due to unfortunately suffering from epilepsy. They had to constantly watch him as a child and exposing him to the flashing lights of Batman’s world was out of the question. Still, he refused to be left out entirely and had learned how to work with technology. 

“He’s gonna run dad’s company all the way up to the moon Barb”.

“I know. We’re so proud of him. So damn smart. Takes after his dead with stuff like that, though he went the tech route instead of the writer and thinker route”. A flash of lights draws her attention and she sees another familiar car pull up. “Well, speak of the devil” she says. “Who’s there?”

“My husband” Barb says. “We’re gonna visit mom”.

“Give her my love will ya? And Mary when you see her”.

“I will Martha” Barbara promises, making to hang up the link. “I love you”.

“I love you too sis. We still on for coffee tuesday?”

“As always” Barbara says. “Good. Don’t wanna miss it. Anyways. Bye!”. Like that the screen cuts out, giving way to the normal computer functions of the computer within the car. Barb opens the door and steps out, just as her husband did the same. He was wearing his slacks and jacket he’d worn to work ever since he started there, and he straightens his glasses as he steps out.

She couldn’t understand how all these years later he still ignited her fire and his salt and pepper colored hair certainly wasn’t helping. “Hello citizen” she jokes, moving up to the man and hugging him. “I’m afraid this is a stop and search. Cooperate”.

“Ahh” Jason says, playing along and taking his wife by the waist. “If it isn’t the beautiful Commissioner of the GCPD. At least they sent out the big guns for me”. He grasps her chin and pulls her up, kissing the woman deeply. “Mmmm...never get tired of that”.

“Me neither” he agrees, turning and placing his arm around her shoulders to begin walking towards the manor. “Dad said she’s been getting worse” he says sadly, and Barbara nods, trying to avoid the fact but being unable too. “It’s okay Barbara”.

“It’s not” she says. “It’ll never be okay but...it is natural” she sighs, hating how the disease had affected her mother. They step up onto the front entrance and open the ancient door, Jason using his key. “They have us sweetie. They have us”.

He’d retired from being Batman years ago now, though he last longer than Bruce. Most likely because of how peaceful the world had become. Of course wars and conflicts still happened, but overall? Much more peaceful. The Society often enough just worked on disaster relief which was good enough for them.

They step into the manor, and walk towards the main room where they knew their mother would be as she usually was. The place was still home, though now it had an omnipresent feeling of dread for them.

They enter the living room where the television was playing a movie for her, still seated at her wheelchair and covered by a blanket. Harleen Wayne was old now, and her hair steel grey, her kindly face wrinkled. Her eyes a bit dull but still bright as she smiled at the cartoon playing.

“I hope she recognizes us this time” Barbara says as Jason nods, moving forward and announcing their presence. “Hey mom” he says, drawing the woman’s eyes which snap onto them instantly. Sometimes she didn’t recognize them, and she’d shriek in horror and have to be calmed down. But this wasn’t one of those times.

She smiles brightly and holds her arms out. “Jason! Barbara! My babies came ta visit” she says, and the two smile to come close and hug and kiss their mother. “Heya mom. How are you today?” Barbara asks, taking a seat in the armchair next to her while Jason kneels beside her, taking her hand. 

“Pfft, still old” she says, winking and moving closer. “They don’t have a cure for that”.

Barbara laughs aloud, feeling overjoyed that her mother was her usual self today, at least for now. “Ohh my babies..” she begins, crying as she looks back and forth. “Where are my other ones? They all okay?”

“Mom, Martha was here two days ago with Terry and Matt. Do you remember?” Jason asks.

“Who’s Terry?” she asks in confusion, genuinely not remembering her grandson. Jason looks up towards the wall which had a picture of her and the two dark haired boys on it, before looking away. There was nothing he could do. “Ohh, it’s okay mom. Nothing”.

It was already out of Harleen’s mind and she returns to the television which was playing a rerun of the looney toons. “Pamela came by today” she says, causing the two to look at each other. “She was with Harvey and Victor. They were just checkin’ up on me. Such good friends I have” she says before frowning. “I asked them where Dinah was though and they said that she’d be along soon too but that I was next. Where are we going? A big trip planned and nobody told me?” she asks with a chuckle.

Jason had no idea how to respond to that. He knew that his mother often talked like this, and he also knew that everyone she just mentioned was dead. “No mom. Not that I know of”.

“Eh, that figures for you father” she says. “Keepin’ even you in the dark. My little Robins”.

Barbara blushes at that, having been such a long way off from being called that. ‘Jeez...that suit I wore...ooof’ she thinks, going back to her memories. “Where is dad mom?” Jason asks, not seeing the man.

“Ohh probably out on patrol. The jerk didn’t even tell me. Hmmph. I’m mad at him. Doesn’t even leave me the keys to the batwing” she says, eyes still glued to the television before she yawns. “I’m tired…”.

  
“Well, it is a little late” Barbara says, knowing it was only seven o’clock yet willing to bend the truth for her mother. “Want me to put you to bed?”

“And just after she asked me to make her some tea”.

Bruce was standing in the doorway, carrying a tray with a cup of tea upon it and entering the room. Harleen watches him, utterly confused by who he is and she pulls Barbara close. “Who is that?” she whispers. Barbara just pats her hand and sighs, sticking with the cover story that always calmed her when she forgot who Bruce was.

“That’s your nurse, remember?” she asks. “He takes care of you”.

“Ohhh..right. I’m sorry Barbara. I forgot” she says and her daughter smiles at her. She gets up quickly and moves to Bruce while Jason stays behind, Harleen now talking to Jason about the cartoon. “Hey dad” she whispers, hugging him close and feeling how he’d aged. He was still a broad and firm man, but his muscles were all but gone. He hugs her back though, giving a firm enough account of himself. “Barbara. Good to see you”.

“You said you were tired Harleen?” he calls out to her, and she nods, nervous around her “nurse”. He was also tired and Barbara could see it in his eyes that their visit was ill timed. Bruce turns though, and offers a peace offering. “How about you stay in your old room? Both of you. Nothing has changed since then and your stuff is still there” he says. “In the morning we’ll all have breakfast together”.

“No hanky panky you too!” Harleen says. “I’m too young to be a grandmother”. She was parroting things she’d said in the past, apparently forgetting that she was a grandmother already. Bruce smiles and moves over towards her, gently taking the wheelchair in his hands and beginning to move it. “I’m going to help you to bed alright Harleen?” he asks, and the woman nods, much more focused on her kids than the forgotten Bruce.

“Dad…we can…”.

“Stay over tonight Jason” Bruce insists, though much more gently than he would’ve in his younger years. It was a tone that brokered no dissent, and both feel like little kids again in the wake of their father’s order.

“Alright”.

“Yay!” Harleen shouts out, still keeping her childlike sense of joy even after all these years. “I’ll see you munchkins in the morning. We’ll have everyone over! It’ll be great”.

“I’m sure it will be Harleen” Bruce says, causing the woman to frown. “You’re not invited. What kind of nurse are you? You forgot my tea” she says, said tea being on the table beside where she was moments ago. Barbara holds in her laughter, loving how she could go from sweet old lady to crabby old lady in seconds, but the laughter dies away as soon as she remembers why that is.

Bruce didn’t let it bother him though, apparently being used to this and taking it in stride. “I know Harleen. I’m sorry. I’m an awful nurse”. 

The two move to the elevator in the hall, and Barbara looks to her husband before hugging him tightly and crying. “It’s so close isn’t it?”

He rubs her back, trying to sooth away the fear that he himself shared with his wife. “Yes”. He couldn’t lie. Not now. 

“What’s dad going to do without her?” she asks. “What are we going to do without her? Dammit Jason...I can’t…”.

He brushes her tears away with his thumb and looks deeply into her eyes. “We shouldn’t be afraid sweetie. We had decades with her. Think on that instead of the time we didn’t have. And believe me, we lived a life with our mom and dad. To be honest, I’m kind of surprised ANY of us are still alive right now to be honest”.   
  
She lays her head on his chest and breaths deeply, trying to remain calm. “You’re right. You’re right” she admits, still not comfortable with it but knowing there was nothing that could be done.

“I like when you just agree with me” he says. “I married the strongest willed woman since...well, besides dad” Jason says with a chuckle. She lightly slaps his arm and he kisses her again, thinking up a way to distract her and coming to a rather...naughty idea.

“How about we go down to the cave and play Batwoman and the robber again...or Batman and the robber? Whichever one you prefer” he teases, causing Barbara to blush. “Well, considering the Batman suit is Terry’s now? How about we go with Batwoman and the robber…though I’m shocked you wanna do it with an old bat like me”.

“Hmm..well, considering you’re still the sexiest woman alive? I think we can make it work” he says. “Now. I’m going to get down there and try and steal….hmmm...I don’t know, how about Bane’s mask?”.

He moves off, leaving Barbara for a moment, chuckling and already in a better mood. She takes a moment to look at the pictures that line the walls now that she was alone. She smiles at the memories and fixates for a moment on each one. Her and Jason when they first came here, Harleen outside of Arkham, Bruce and Harley’s wedding where she had been pregnant with the twins.

It goes on and on, even a picture entitled that Barbara remembers well. It was her, her mother, Aunt Dinah, Aunt Pamela and Tatsu all together at a girl’s night out. ‘The birds of prey’ she thinks with a sad little smile, tracing her finger over the picture before she turns to the open clock.

“Uhh ohh” she teases, playing along with her husband. “Who left that open? I better go check it out”.

**_Upstairs_ **

Harleen was sitting at her mirror, brushing her hair as she was already dressed in her nightgown. She stared at her reflection as if searching for something, and not finding it. It was frustrating to say the least for her, but she didn’t even know why.

“Ready for bed Harleen?”

Bruce had also taken the liberty of dressing in his pajamas, though he was going to sleep in the adjacent room. “Are you ready for bed Harleen?” he asks, and she nods, lifting her arms up have him carry her, which he happily does. Despite his weakness, Harleen weighed practically nothing, and he was easily able to lift her.

He places his wife in the bed and places the covers over her, making sure she was tucked in nice and tight. “Are you warm enough?” She nods from under the covers, reminding him a bit of a child. “Okay”.

He resists the urge to lean down and kiss her goodnight, most nights having received a slap in the face for doing so, the woman accusing him of being “fresh”. He begins to walk away, wanting to get some sleep himself before Harleen reaches out and grabs his hand, stopping him. He turns and sees her regarding him quizzically, though it was more a questioning of his actions instead of his identity.

“Puddin’ where are ya going? I thought we were going to bed?”

Bruce smiles at that, having gone a few weeks without her using his nickname on him. “Do you want me to lay down with you?” he asks, causing the woman to cluck and roll her eyes. “Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I? We’ve been sleeping together for over thirty years. Why change it now?” 

She pats the open side of the bed and surprises Bruce with how muddled her thoughts could be one second, and then how sharp and crisp the next. He settles into bed though, moving in beside his wife and turning to caress her cheek, wanting to enjoy whatever moments of lucidity she could give him.

“Mmm...how was your day puddin’?” she asks, forgetting that was with him for its entirety. “It was perfect Harleen”.   
  
“Good”.

She nuzzles into him, tucking her head beneath his chin. “We should take a vacation” she says. “Just us two. We’re so worn out from patrol and everything. Maybe the city can be alright for a week or two” she asks.

He humors her, knowing that travel in her condition was impossible. “Where would you wanna go?” he asks, feeling himself grow more and more tired. “Somewhere warm” she coos. “Somewhere….warm...as long...as I’m with….you”.

The two fall off into what feels like sleep for a moment, but over time they begin to awaken, realizing that something was...different.   
  
“Hi Bruce” a voice calls out, and he wakes up, bolting up in bed at the sound. 

What he sees is something from a dream, and his mother and father are standing at the foot of his bed. “Harleen!” he says, gently shaking his wife, who moves up herself. “What? What? Where’s the fire?” she asks tiredly, shaking her head before looking at her husband in shock. “Bruce...you’re….”.

He looks back at her and sees what she is seeing, except on her end. She was young again, her hair blonde and eyes alert, her skin as soft and unblemished as it had been when they first meet. He reaches his hand out and touches her cheek, and she does the same. “You’re a hunk again!” she says happily before correcting herself. “I mean, not that you weren’t always but...wow!”.

“Not too bad yourself Harleen” he compliments her back, causing the woman to move her hands over her body. “Wow..my tummy is tight! And the girls! They’re back and firm! Ahh…”.

Bruce blushes, remembering who else seemed to be present, his detective orientated mind being unable to not connect the pieces. “Harley…” he says, taking his wife’s hand and moving her out of the bed. “There’s someone you should meet”.

Thomas and Martha Wayne were smiling down at their son and daughter in law, and Harleen goes slack jawed, moving to them with Bruce. “Hello there Harley” Martha says, enveloping the woman in a hug as Bruce looks them over, unable to know what to say. “My little boy has been been treating you right hasn’t he?”

Harley cries and nods, especially as she sees Bruce hug his father tightly. As soon as that embrace ended, he turns to his mother and hugs her close, causing Bruce’s father to move to Harleen and hug her as well. 

“We’ve been waiting a long time to meet you Harleen”.

“Wait...how is...ohhh”.

She looks back at the bed and sees their older bodies, embraced against one another, each smiling. Bruce holds her to his side and nods. “I guess we died huh?”

“Yup”.

Harleen shrugs and turns to her in laws. “I’m surprised we went out that way” she says. “I mean...heh...seems kinda funny that after everything we wind up dying of old age. No Joker traps. No Bane. Prune juice and liver spots got us. Damn Bruce”.

“Happens to the best of us Blondie” Ivy calls from the door, standing besides her husband and Vic Sage, each looking as young as they once were. “Red!” Ivy shouts, rushing over to her best friend and throwing her arms around her, hugging her tight, Bruce moving to hug and shake hands with Harvey and Vic.

“Dying isn’t so bad is it Bruce?” Harvey chides.

“I guess it wasn’t” he acknowledges.

“Wait...does this mean we go to the good place?” Harleen asks suddenly. “I mean…”.

“Heaven forbid the thought of going anywhere else Miss Wayne” Alfred says, joining the group alongside Elise who stood beside him, resplendent in her white stola. Harley runs to her, kissing her cheek and hugging her tight. “Mama….I missed you so much”.

“I know munchkin. I know. I’m here now” she soothes as Bruce approaches Alfred and looks at the man. A perfectly arched eyebrow goes up in response. “No hug for me Master Bruce?” he asks, and the man laughs, bringing the butler into an embrace, clapping his back. “Good to have you back Al”.

“Always at your service Master Wayne”.

“Of course you’re going to heaven Harleen” Martha says with a roll of her eyes. “You all have done so much good, and so much more than just yourselves. You raised heroes. And they’re going to keep on going through the years” Martha soothes, taking her daughter in law’s hand.

“Are...are our babies gonna be okay Bruce?” she asks her husband, not wanting to leave unless she knew that for a fact her children were going to be able to go on without her. Bruce hugs her close and lovingly. “I think they will be. We raised them right”.

“We did good right puddin’?”

“We did”.

Harleen sighs and looks towards her body, still warm under the covers with her husband. “Alright then...we’ll see them again one day in a really long time so...I ain’t too upset”.

“You were just asking about a vacation to someplace warm” Harvey reminds her, gaining his wife’s approval. “It’s warm where we’re going...not that way!” she says realizing what could be interpreted by what she said.

The group descends into laughter though Bruce was fixated on his parents, not knowing what to say. His mother reaches out and takes his hand, squeezing it gently. “I know son” Thomas says. “I know”.

That was enough, and slowly the spirits begin to move out of the room, heading up into an area only they could see. Soon, the room was empty, the spirits with their hands enjoined together leaving behind the empty room, in which only a slight draft could be felt.

For over thirty years, Bruce and Harleen Wayne were married and in that time they did everything together. Lived, fought, loved and most importantly, stayed together. They were the rock upon which the other’s feet were firmly planted. Their safe harbor in a storm. 

They were, even in death, each other’s strength.

  
  
  


END


End file.
